What is love?

What indeed is love? How do we measure this elusive dance of strings that bemuses brain, heart, stomach, hormones and blinds the eye or makes it see a clear day during the stormiest skies? Must it be measured?

Could we not just enjoy the dance and laugh and be gay for as long as the music lasts? And when or IF the music fades, remember fondly the heart-skipping, foot tripping, beats and know that the dance was unforgettable, the dancer was lovely and the time together well worth whatever pinprick of pain that may follow if loneliness and loss complicates the separation of music, dancer and the dance.

Why is love seemingly so complicated by expectation of return, of the "pay off" or "pay back"? When someone loves from afar, unrequited, the longing in the heart, the pining for a look from their beloved, is tantamount to hope for a lost cause at times. Searching for gold in a dry streambed may yield a better result. Their beloved may not even know they exist. Courage and maturity is what is needed to break through, to take hold of the loved one and declare the truth of feeling, and to know, one way or the other, whether the chance exists for love to grow and flourish, or for the onlooker, who has taken her chance, to fade away, with the courage grasped and smile in place, to weap alone in sorrow, grieve for the loss of hope and then to let go of that expectation and with hope renewed, to move forward.

And of the rest, those who love openly in a world accepting of their patterns - straight and narrow, separate and alone together? They merge happily on the highway of life, meet, greet, retreat, invite their elite to a big affair, get married there, and happily ever after --- Prince and Princess and so on and so on.

What about the "others"? Their patterns are not so set - certainly not straight, nor so narrow, not necessarily two and not necessarily living together. What is love for them? Love is a dance - to music only the person can hear. And when two people hear the same song, and dance to it, breathing together, singing and sighing, no matter who they are, If they are laughing and enjoying the dance, it must be love.

Dance on, and let the music play. Sing loud on this day and every one thereafter.

“LOVE LIFE. TAKE great pleasure in small offerings. Believe that the world owes you nothing. Understand that every gift given to you is exactly that.”
—Maya Angelou, novelist, Iris (#44)

“I AM STRUCK once again by the unutterable beauty, terror, and strangeness of everything we think we know.”
—Ed Abbey, novelist and environmental prophet, from The Journey Home (Dutton, 1991)

“Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”—1 Corinthians 13:12

In my partnership with my lover, I would rewrite this Corinthians passage to say…

Alone, I only see in a mirror darkly. Then, we talk, we breathe together and listen to each other, we see each other face to face. Alone, I know only in part; with you, will I know fully, even as I have been fully known. Now, I am alone. Then – when then is with you, will I know myself to be whole in my lover’s eyes, seen for the first time by my heart. If this is prayer, if this is love, let it go on past death.

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"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, Time is an eternity." - Henry Van Dyke.



I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people - Vincent van Gogh"

A life’s worth, in the end, isn’t measured in hours, or dollars. It’s measured by the amount of love exchanged along the way." - Douglas C. Means

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. - - The Bible : 1 Corinthians 13:4


Happy Hearts Day