Love can be and mean many different things in life. You can love your family, your friends, your partner, your job, a book—but how do we differentiate between those typifications of love? Is it through passion, pure emotion, romance…what is it?
As I’m coming to some realizations in my life I really wanted to dig into what love is to me and what it means in my life. This all came about when I read a quote a good friend posted about her celebrating her relationship, the quote read:
“Love is a condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
This made me wonder, is that what I consider to be love, is that how I love…or am I not loving how one should be? Immediately I came to a conclusion that there is no one right way to love. People find, feel, give and take love in so many manners that it’s definition constantly changes from one person or relationship to the next. There’s history in love, a definition in the dictionary but what matters most to me in terms of love is that I am giving love in a way that truley defines me and pleases those who are receiving that love.
While I have every bit of love for my family, friends (and books :)) when I think of love, my inner, hopelessly romantic-self lingers at the thought of the love found and shared between two people, as partners in a relationship. For me, finding love has been a true whirlwind. It is the most beautiful and refreshing part of life, that makes it worth living for. Love is remarkably rare and unexpected, it’s a feeling people can only imagine about and cannot truly comprehend until its a feeling that runs through their mind, body, heart and soul—and even then it constantly surprises.
Love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection towards another that battles menaces and makes you feel whole. It is a unspeakable bonding of souls based on a survival instinct, to continue life through an all-consuming connection. It is a feeling of absolute trust and honesty, that is never questioned. It’s a feeling that overcomes all and overwhelms most, and is truly inspirational.
In my experience love has taken me up and down, and back up again. I found the good and bad that can come of love, and continue to learn how to love. Just about a year ago, while escaping the ghosts of a bad love I found myself becoming wrapped up in a completely unexpected web of wonderful love. I thought I was a happy person, content with where I was in life….little did I know I was oblivious to the happiness yet to come! Now I look back and wonder how I didn’t see the tiny hole in my body, missing something, that is now bursting at the seams! How did I get there…I don’t know. People always say you can’t truly hurt until you love, but I also believe you can’t truly love until you hurt. I had every faith I had gotten past the bad love I learned, but I still find myself a working progress to this day…and this progression came only from finding love, a genuine love, that is teaching me many things I thought to be merely fairy tale. My expression of love is ever changing, as I learn more about the feeling and what it is to give or show that feeling…but if you ask me right now this is what I call love:
A deep, unexplainable connection that draws you in physically, mentally and emotionally to that one person in a most unexpected manor. It hits you like a TON of bricks. It’s when you look at or think of someone and get such an utter feeling of admiration through your whole body…you can’t do anything other than smile. It’s a selfless act, that wills you to be there to support no matter the circumstance. It creates a willingness to share every thought, feeling—good or bad, and moment with the one which you have connected. It’s becoming inspired to be better, in every way…not just for that person but because they push you, and you push them, to be all they can be in life. It’s a promise, in the present, to cherish the person for everything they are…which is everything to you. It’s always enjoying each others company, even during tough times, because being around one another makes it easier. You want to make that person happy because they do for you, without effort. Being able to be your silly, crazy, energetic self and feel at complete ease doing so. It’s finding a best friend, of the most intimate sort, who is your confidant that you can and do run to for anything. It’s feeling butterflies and giddiness no matter how much time passes. It is respect, it is all-consuming, always exciting, forever growing and surprising. Love is coming home.
To this day and I’m beginning to think what will be forever…love is a true mystery to me, but it’s a mystery that can guide you through endless possibilities. It is an irreplaceable blessing, a miracle I hope everyone pursues and is able to experience! Sending my love to all, and to one in particular…thank you for being you and making me feel whole again.
