Love

So I realized that I haven't blogged in forever and I decided I need to blog again. And then came the challenge of figuring out what to blog. In doing so, I looked at the conversations I've had lately to attempt inspiration from there, and I found it. What do most people in Provo talk about? In one form or another, most conversations have to do with love.

What is love? I googled it and got at least 10 different definitions. So I tried dictionary.com next, but it had 28 definitions. And then, for kicks, I went to famousquotes.com to try to locate my favorite sayings about love. And I found some great ones.

Eleanor Roosevelt - “It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death.”

Sydney Smith - “To love and be loved is the greatest happiness of existence.”

George Santayana - “Not to believe in love is a great sign of dullness. There are some people so indirect and lumbering that they think all real affection must rest on circumstantial evidence.”

The Bible - “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Benjamin Disraeli - “We are all born for love.... It is the principle of existence, and its only end.”

And, to add a few more words of wisdom, a few poems from e e cummings, one of my favorites.

i carry your heart with me
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)


it may not always be so; and i say
it may not always be so;and i say
that if your lips,which i have loved,should touch
another's,and your dear strong fingers clutch
his heart,as mine in time not far away;
if on another's face your sweet hair lay
in such a silence as i know,or such
great writhing words as,uttering overmuch,
stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;

if this should be,i say if this should be-
you of my heart,send me a little word;
that i may go unto him,and take his hands,
saying,Accept all happiness from me.
Then shall i turn my face,and hear one bird
sing terribly afar in the lost lands.

I believe in love, and I believe in love very strongly. I believe that love is a choice that one makes; one cannot fall into anything that one is not already upon the edge of. I also believe that there are levels and types of love; we all love so many people in so many ways, and that is all constantly changing.

One more thing: I also believe that not enough of us know that we are loved by those who love us. I have made it a habit lately of telling everyone that matters to me that I love them, and it has truly made a difference in my life and in theirs. How many of us go a day or two, or even as much as weeks without hearing someone say, "I love you"? If everyone knew they were loved because they were told so by those who love them, just think how wonderfuol the world would be!

Basically, what it comes down to is this: love is real and it is powerful. It is wonderful!