A Meaning of Love

Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. ~ Kahlil Gibran

Love is a mystery element. Defining it has challenged mankind for centuries. I think that defining love has to be left for each individual to accomplish, but there can be many things said to point you individuals along the right path.

Did you ever share your lunch at school with someone who had no lunch? That's love. Have you ever spent an afternoon listening to a worried employee? That's love. Have you ever given up a great parking space to someone else? That's love. When you stand before a magnificent building or painting, it is love inside you that inspires your awe. Psychologists have tried to slice and dice love down into components. The world has been striving for centuries to absorb an understanding of this grandest of all feelings. Just when we think we've got it, yet another aspect manifests itself.

St. Valentine Day honors the Roman citizen who died rather than decry his faith. That is one form of love. Giving cards, flowers and candy is another form made popular in our time. Do you notice that love assumes many different forms? What form has it assumed in your life?

Love is very frequently selfless. You have to step outside of your own wishes, wants, and desires to offer love to another with no thought of accruing any benefit for yourself. This love creates intimacy and trust. Sometimes, simply listening to another individual is a high form of love. If you think about the person's goodness while you listen, love is exponentially enhanced.

Love has been defined as platonic, romantic, familial, religious. We all know of examples where love is absent: war, rivalry, fighting, betrayal, even hatred and murder. This is not the fault of love. This is an erroneous stepping away from the concept and forgetting about its existence. One can always step back into this warmer, more charitable, definition of Love. Forgiveness allows love to return.

Honoring each individual as we interface with them and accepting them for who they are, what they have understood, and the potential they have yet to reach is the most practical form of love. Striving to be harmonious when together, to listen to them describe their joy-filled or sorrow-filled experiences, to create space for your friends, your employees, your family to be who they are, this is love. "And Love will grow, for all we know." ~ Karen Carpenter

Self-love isn't always seen as a virtue, but rather, a vice. I have always taken the stand that unless I love myself first, there simply will never be enough to offer to any other. I believe that self-love is essential. It is part of the mandate to "Know Thyself" and it is the most tender form of love I've experienced. It is simply Truth in a whispered form. It is telling one's self the truth that "I am good." Unless one can embrace this truth, he cannot accept Love from any other. While loving one another is praiseworthy, loving one's self is absolutely necessary as a prerequisite. I wish you love.