I have spent all night trying to get this post up. I have lost 3 versions. Something has changed about the posting format and I can’t figure it out. I am tired and so this will be much shorter than originally planned. My intent was to do a post on Love but without poetry or any of the flowery trappings normally associated with LOVE. I wanted to be more practical to see if there were any chance of actually describing the word or defining it. So, I began with the dictionary; LOVE is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. Seems reasonable. But, what about that first moment when you look into the eyes of a stranger, and you recognize them, like you have been there before? What about the feeling you get when you’re around someone that you just can’t bare to be without, you have to call them all the time, and you rush home to see them because you can’t bare being without them. I think it’s going to take a little more defining. This whole post began because I have been overwhelmed lately by outpourings of Love that I never expected would ever happen in my life. People are my favorite thing, they never seem to disappoint. (ok maybe sometimes, but never boring)

Anyway, then there is the adult way of looking at Love, you know the fact that Love is a passionate commitment that we nurture, and develop, and grow with as it evolves. We know that it is more than just a powerful feeling. Without the commitment, it’s just infatuation. Without the passion, it is only dedication. Without nurturing even the greatest of loves can wither and die. And so we blindly stumble forward still unsure of exactly what love is. The paradox of love is that it comes to you as “supremely” freeing, and yet it attaches us with bonds stronger than death. Funny how that works.

I love what Jojo Moyes (the romance novelist) says about the subject, she says; “What love is, depends upon where you are in relation to it. Secure in it, it can feel as mundane and necessary as air, you exist within it, almost unnoticing. Deprived of it, it can feel like an obsession, all consuming, and manifesting itself in actual physical pain. It is the point just before consummation of it, that truly fascinates us.” I’d say she has very good point and takes yet another step in helping us to understand that we really don’t know how to explain Love at all. Love is more easily experienced than defined……

However, as a Theological virtue, by which we love God above all things and our neighbors as ourselves, it seems a little “far off” until we encounter it in some one else. You know, like when you witness acts of kindness, or generosity, or even self sacrifice, until you see it in some one else. It is in those moments that we are reminded of what we are missing (or already have) and become determined to do something about it. Love, is the one thing that can never hurt anyone, although it may cost a person, a whole lot, in a lot of different ways, but it can never “really” hurt anyone. It is a voice that does not use words….

For me, personally, I think LOVE is our greatest blessing, in that we take it on “faith”, and it is in that “leap of faith”, in ANY experience, that is the greatest and wisest gift of all. Faith is an unseen force that drives everything, including evolution. And if you have been following my blog, then you know I believe wholeheartedly that as human beings we are constantly evolving and that faith is the key to that equation. So if LOVE is on your mind, just remember it doesn’t need to make any sense at all if you have “faith.” With a little faith you can change the world my friends……..I am Dartanion2…….and that’s the way I see it…………cheers…..t xx