Love

There are so many things in this world about "love" (these are a few of my favorites):

books - Pride & Prejudice 

movies - The Notebook 

poems - Wild Nights - Emily Dickinson

songs - Cowboy Take Me Away - the Dixie Chicks

sonnets - Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? - William Shakespeare. 

From the beginning of time love has and will always be all around in our world. It can be intoxicating; it can be contagious (everyone knows the love-bug). 

My all time favorite quote about love is from The Holiday. The opening monologue is from one of the character's first hand experience with love. Here's a little excerpt...

"For some, quite inexplicably, love fades; for others love is simply lost. But then of course love can also be found, even if just for the night. And then, there's another kind of love: the cruelest kind. The one that almost kills its victims. It's called unrequited love. Of that I am an expert. Most love stories are about people who fall in love with each other. But what about the rest of us? What about our stories, those of us who fall in love alone? We are the victims of the one sided affair. We are the cursed of the loved ones. We are the unloved ones, the walking wounded."

Love defined in the Bible: love is patient, kind, not jealous, not boastful or proud 1 Corinthians 13:4. Love defined loosely by the world: love is a strong affection towards someone; warm attachment, enthusiasm or devotion. 

Love HAS power.

Our human love can sometimes fail. We try to have an unconditional love for others around us, but when we are hurt or wronged in some way, that love becomes conditional. We expect things to be done for us to be able to love again. They have to earn our love back. 

Earn someone's love? That's crazy! Why should anyone have to earn someone's love? Love is a powerful poison, and at the same a wonderful cure. It can change and alter lives - good or bad...

Ok, one more of my favorite quotes about love - C.S. Lewis said it best! 

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, and irredeemable.”

Always know that love comes from the heart; love comes from the most vulnerable places deep down inside our souls.