I view love as the energy that creates us all, and with which we all create.
Love is know by many names: Friendship; Compassion; Kindness; Caring; Self-Esteem; Acceptance; Understanding; Nurturing.
To me, love is an action, a verb (without meaning to steal anyone's book title). Love can only be shown, it cannot be proclaimed. Oh, you can say it as many times as you want to, but it won't mean a thing without action. On the other hand, action can show love even though it is not said.
And then also: Love is not necessarily the action that you deem best (unless it is a case of life or death - real life or death, as in literally), but the action that is required by the other person. Love is a guide, not a tyrant.
I believe we all love unconditionally from time to time, even though we have somehow come to believe that we can't love unconditionally. We might not always agree with our loved ones, but that does not mean we don't love them. Now if you are trying to change someone, you no longer love them, or you only love certain parts of them and that is conditional love, which we also have. I know I have hitherto loved my husband unconditionally. Whatever he does, I love him. Whether that will change or not, is something that I can say won't happen, but only time will tell.
Very few people can love all the people they love in the same way (those few are usually referred to as saintly or masterful). Mostly, we love certain people with a certain type of love.
The manner in which we love someone can change, and that's OK too. It should in fact be accepted as a part of life. As an example: Mothers need to love their children in a much closer way when they are little; As the children grow however, that love changes, not in intensity, but in the manner which we tend to hold on, or keep them close. This is not to say that mothers don't want to hold on forever, but that we can't, or rather, shouldn't. Things change. Even love. Sometimes the love between 2 people will turn into friendship love, and sometimes friendship will turn into romantic love. Whatever the change, be ready to embrace it for this is as much a part of your life's journey as all the other manners in which you change or grow.
Love has no ego. It does not show itself through big things. Not always, anyway. For the most part, love is built up through a million little pieces that we present to the world every day. Sometimes the small things are the most powerful: The manner in which we accept another person for who they are; The smile we give to the homeless man on the street; The How Are You's that are truly heartfelt; The understanding that dawns or the acceptance that is given despite failure to understand; The willingness to not be right... Sometimes love shows more through a pat on the shoulder than any other sacrifice could.
Love does not need love in order to exist. If you love someone, then love them. Don't love because you are loved, rather love because you love.
Above all, I believe that love is what it is and in what form it is and this world would be a much better place if we accepted the manner in which other people are willing to love us, even though it might not be the manner that we desire from them. Love is as individual as a fingerprint and we should not judge people for how much, how little or in which way they show their love to us.
This journey is ours together. We came from love and we will return to love. How each of us decides to get there is a personal choice and we should allow it to be.
***
Of course, one has to quote Shakespeare when one requires a quote on love:
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
~ William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
~ William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
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