All About Love

All About Love

Love is the most absorbing subject in existence. From ages to ages, we have different views about love. We put meaning to it as to how we perceive it. We view love as something that is of different kinds. But the truth is, there is only one kind of love – the love that comes from God.  There are many and varied manifestations but only a single reality. God is love and love is God. “Love God with all your heart and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself.” It is only when we realize this truth that we can fully experience the love that is everlasting. However, that is on a divine perspective and only few people have grasped its true value. In our modern and tormented world, love has become the most misconstrued word. It becomes an expression not affection.

I don’t want to sound “KJ” (kill joy) with my literary masterpiece today. It is Valentine Season and I know that we are too concentrated on the love that is pre-eminent to us. The love that stands out amid the multiplicity of its meanings, the love shared between man and woman. Hmmm…I know this is the most exciting thing to talk about and I bet you can’t wait to read this through.  Well, in my not so humble opinion, I would say that I am the most “in-love” woman alive. I love deeply and I show it. Love is what keeps me going and it just have to be that way. It becomes my reality. No matter how painful my experience, it cannot discourage me to love others more or a particular man – in the right time and in God’s provision! Oops…we’re not talking about my life here… Let’s just talk about love.

 Love is the ultimate value of existence. It is much, much more powerful than us - mighty and pervading. To give out this love is to share limitless possibilities. To love a special someone is to give oneself and it is an emotional experience that often takes us through a roller-coaster ride. When opportunity chooses us to feel this love, it will come and enter into our emotional system without even knocking. Like there’s a virus that corrupted our system. It is hard to decode and we often say we were caught off-guard. The firewall was turned-off. We will only realize we’re involved when we feel a sudden breathing discomfort. Didn’t we always say that seeing the object of our affection makes our heart skip a beat? And then we feel like our heart wants to jump out from our chest? Such a wonderful feeling of heaven and we say we are “in-love.”

“Being in-love” is love at its most intense, and personally focused in a very special way. We talk of “falling in love,” as if it was something into which we are precipitated against our will, like falling into a pond. It is a well-established phenomenon, no less surprising as a scientific fact than as a personal experience. Lovers are obsessed by the image of the loved ones, to whom they ascribe every virtue and merit; outside observers of the phenomenon speak of the lover’s “madness” or “blindness.”

For the lover, merely to see the beloved is to feast the soul; and to touch her (or him) is bliss. But when the two souls can interpenetrate, an even more magical state is achieved. The sense of “pouring out” of our essential being to another is one of the hallmarks of being in love.

Falling in love is irrational. The emotions involved are so violent as to override our reason. We feel that we are allowed to succumb into something, even the forbidden. We accept nothing but our feelings no matter the compromise. Luckily for the human race, love often chooses aright. Then reason and experience may give it eyes to see, and may transform a transient madness into the highest and most enduring sanity. Then the lover experiences a heightened vitality and finds new significance in life.

However, falling in love is just a preliminary period that we all go through. The real thing is sustaining the love amid the zigzags and the twists and turns of life. To fall is without much effort but to withstand it requires a lot of patience and understanding.  Love is to be nurtured. For the young love, it is a memorable experience and sometimes a lesson to be learned. For the mature love, it is a responsibility that cannot be taken for granted. It is something that we need to be reminded constantly about our commitment.

To love is a happy thing. There is no reason to hide it. There is nothing more sublime than the love that is being expressed to the beloved. I know that today, the Valentine’s Day, is one special occasion that we all celebrate. Love during this season, like an earthquake, is raised to its highest intensity. I can only feel the “kilig moments” of lovers on this day.  It is a big day to upraise and strengthen the connection and express it ultimately. Not only with bouquets of flowers and boxes of chocolates but with the intangible gifts of time and care. As a woman, the most significant expression of love that I can give is my unconditional service and undivided attention to my man. To take into account that to love is an active concern for the good of the other.  To relentlessly seek the good of the beloved and to be always willing to sacrifice. No amount of material gain can surpass such gesture. It is the most essential thing. If only people will understand that truth, then Valentine’s Day is not just February 14^th but every day of the year.

Whatever is your story, cherish the love you have. Whatever the circumstance, just always choose to love and love more. Love should not cease on a stressful situation but will always choose to persevere and continue to hope. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. Love never fails.” 1Corinthians 13:7-8 (NAB)

I know of a unique love story that may inspire you and give you hope. It is about a combination of love that endures and a love that is sweeter the second time around.  Only a quick view because I don’t think there’s so much space left on the pages.  There were young lovers who loved each other dearly but because of some inevitable interference, they didn’t end up at the altar. The man married someone else and the woman remained single until she grew old. The man had his family and his life was good. The woman, though she was left alone, also lived a good life and of course she wasn’t the type who would flirt with his ex. LOL She was distant from the man for many years – let’s say 50.  Then the man’s wife died and that is when the part two of their love affair begun. They get back together and they got married. Though they were already very advanced in age, you can see from the looks of their faces that they were truly happy. It was a big event in our place. I really don’t know how the woman endured her love but I believe that she is a woman of great courage.  I would say that her waiting paid off and that should tell us something. 

Love is indispensable and at its fullest can include an enormous range of emotions and sentiments. It can combine humility with pride, passion with peace, self-assertion with self-surrender; it can reconcile violence of feeling with tenderness; it can make us hope for the unattainable.

As for me, love is not for the fearful, the timid and the weak but for the strong and the courageous. It takes courage to love. It is like taking a huge leap into the unknown and no matter how you land, you could not have done otherwise.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1Corinthians13:13 (NIV)