Talking About Love

Talking About Love--

I love your shoes!  Love the way you decorated your home!  Love you!  Love your garden!  Love that you took the time to visit with me.  Love the dessert you made.  Love, love, love.

Love is a word we throw around.  We just love everything.  That includes food, clothing, cars, hair cuts, vacations, people, jewelry, books.  The list is never ending.  We love, love, love.

Do you suppose there are other words that would more accurately describe our feelings about objects and people?  Have we devalued this wonderful word by overusing it?  Or does it make any difference how and in what context we use it?

And just what is love anyway?  Is the warm, fuzzy feeling we have from gazing at a beautiful pair of summer shoes the same as the feeling we experience when we look into the eyes of a beloved friend?  If no is the answer, then is it possible that we use the word love a bit too much to describe inanimate objects?

A new shiny car cannot love me back.  It can provide me with a lovely ride.  It can move me from point A to point B, but it never expresses feelings about the way I take care of it.  Perhaps it is the latest model, color and style.  I may feel like a million bucks as I cruise down the road.  But, that object will never laugh with me or grieve with me.  It will always be an object incapable of feelings.  (I still really like a cool ride!)

The same is true of all things.  They provide us with what we think we need at the moment.  A house gives us shelter.  It provides us a place to live and grow.  We have many life experiences inside the structure.  By inhabiting it, we bring life to it.   But the house itself--nope.  Just wood, cement, tons of wires, pipes, floors, ceilings, windows, doors.  It is a thing.  And  things cannot give us love.

Mountains can inspire us to new heights.  They are silent giants that speak to our core.  Oceans do the same.  Forests give a certain peace found nowhere else.  Nature has great power.  We feel at home in certain parts of nature.  However, mountains, trees, oceans, forests cannot give us what we need the most.  What is the one thing all humans must have to shine?

Yep--love.  Babies left without human touch will not thrive.  In fact, just the opposite is true.  Young children who are hugged believe that this world is a darn good place.  Teens, who push people away, need the same thing.  It is simply their time to try those wings adults have been trying to develop.  Adults need to believe they are valued.  Now that is not the same as love, but it comes close.  So much of who we are and who we will become revolves around that simple four letter word.

I am not going to the dictionary for a definition.  You can do that.  The point is we all know what love looks and feels like.  It is the warm eyes that greet us when we have been absent.  It is the embrace that shows us understanding has arrived.  It is the affection between two people who have chosen to care for one another long term.  It is the joy of life itself.  The intimate moments shared with that special someone who puts our needs above their own.  It fills us up.  Sometimes we cry from the sheer joy of that word love.

It can go away.  Oh--that is so hurtful.  When love departs, it takes us with it.  Recovery can be longer than recovering from surgery.  We have been wounded down to our core.  That is probably when we truly know what love is.  The moment it departs, we feel dead inside.  Don't want to stay on this paragraph very long.

So, this is what I think.  Love can only accurately be called love when it is able to be returned.   And who can return love?  You got it!  People.  When we want to talk about a troubling situation, it is not a tree we go to.  It is another person.  Maybe even a person who has walked the same walk we find ourselves walking.  When we are fearful about anything, we don't tell our car about our distress expecting to hear comforting words.  We call a friend or family member.  You know this.  Love binds us together.

While I truly do enjoy nature down to my very bones, love belongs to those who share life with me.  Who reach out and tell me they care when I am hurting.  Who laugh with me over another goofy thing I have done.  Who simply enjoy our time together.

Love this time with you!  Take good care.