A definitive response to LOVE |
1. What is LOVE? 2. Is LOVE a choice or does it just happen? 3. What (if any) boundaries do you put on LOVE? 4. Is there a such thing as too much LOVE? To define LOVE would be to simplify it. And there is nothing simple about LOVE. And to define LOVE would mean that there are words powerful enough to describe a feeling so intoxicating and overwhelming that a piece of yourself, a quite large piece at that, becomes lost in it. The unfortunate part of LOVE is that the definition is variable. Maybe it shouldn't be but it is. If you have ever loved someone and had them love you back but in a different way than you had hoped, than you know exactly what I mean. To ME, LOVE is an attachment of your soul to another's. LOVE is selfless, purposeful, and action based. The words need not be uttered to know its truth. LOVE is fragile and more precious than any discoverable entity on earth. It's fundamental for living, yet it takes your breath away in an instant. Because of LOVE lives are created. Because of LOVE lives are saved. And because of LOVE other lives are destroyed. I hesitate to compare LOVE to anything, but for the purpose of explanation let's illustrate. LOVE is a FIRE that tended to, can be beautiful, vibrant, warm, and soothing. But when ignored, that fire can surprise you. It may die out, to never be seen again. On the contrary, it could grow into an immensely terrifying, raging FIRE that consumes everything within reach. A FIRE that grows so out of control, so quickly, that it leaves you wondering, what just happened…. And how it happened. LOVE is both accidental and by choice. I accidentally fell in love with a man that I thought I never would. I intentionally put my heart on the line to give LOVE a chance to work. I could have kept my feelings buried deep inside to avoid the risk that LOVE requires. But I took a chance. It was a risk that, in the end, cost me a lot. But the beautiful contradiction of such an intentional accident is something I can, nor ever would, take back. Matter of fact, I don't think I could ever have understood the tremendous expanse of such a LOVE until my heart felt the pain, that only such a feeling can bring. What boundaries do you put on LOVE? A LOVE with boundaries, I would infer could not be LOVE, at least not the kind of LOVE that I LOVE to hate… unless the exception to such a rule is to never LOVE another more than one's self. LOVE is way too easy to lose yourself in, especially when the biggest result of LOVE is the desire to please another, no matter what it takes. But losing yourself leaves no one for the other to LOVE, thus ripping the ying & yang of loving and being LOVED apart. And I'm not sure there is a greater tragedy than this. To impose the idea there could ever be such a thing as too much LOVE is fallacious. For LOVE itself is to do so without holding back. Any other kind of LOVE is a LOVE I'd rather not know. |