WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LOVE?

Summer, 2015

Have you ever considered what your own personal definition of love is?

A year ago I began to journal on it, just for my own heart and understanding. I have asked others about love too.

Some definitions I have heard sound like I hit a repeat button. Kind of like a post they may have seen on face book, read in a poem or what a parent may have once upon a time shared.

Yet I believe it is a growing and ever changing definition that I can move higher with. For what would the love of an angel be like? What would the love of a God be like? What is the love of a baby, a parent and grandparent like? How much space do you give your romantic love?

What am I here to understand if not love?

This year I have forgiven more completely old loves. I have listened more truly to family, hearing them without my teen age mind rolling its eyes. I have practiced self-love by saying what hurts and asking for better and knowing I deserve it.

I lived in my growing self and decided to be more aware.

Some days I crawl backwards and some days I fly forwards. Love, I am finding is like a wave or a heartbeat. Love can move at the pace of a growing tree and the spinning earth. Some loves are quick like a falling star or a setting sun. All have such meaning. There is no need to put one above the other. Enjoy what comes and be aware of its glory.

Love. September 2014

I say I love you a lot. Every day and many times. Today I was thinking of how difficult it is for many to say this word. I wondered what it meant to each person and why it has been ingrained that it is a word you should limit yourself to in some way. So I sat down, opened my laptop and looked up the definition of love. This is what I got:

Love Definition ( according to the dictionary) : noun, A strong feeling of affection and concern toward another person, as that arising from kinship or close friendship. A strong feeling of affection and concern for another person accompanied by sexual attraction.A feeling of devotion or adoration toward God or a god. v. verb To feel love for (a person).We love our parents. I love my friends. To feel sexual love for (a person). To feel devotion to (God or a god).

After reading this, I thought how odd it was that no better explanation or thought was given to such a magnificent word as love. The description seemed anemic for such an expansive emotion. So I began to write what love is to me...I am only beginning but thought I would share the question.

Here is what I wrote below:

Love: To see clearly into another's soul and understand another or yourself with a caring heart. To want only the best and highest for yourself, another or many.

To listen, free of judgement and opinion in order to truly hear and connect. To hold your truth and others with honor.

To offer your heart, not for the purpose of receiving, but for the joy of the experience of union.

To know when to let go in order to let yourself or another grow with faith in the process.

To know love is not possessing.

To enter into a soul, through body or thought in order to share our vulnerability and truth.

To witness the goodness and growth of a person and let them feel cherished. To support another and forgive with faith in the soul beneath the fear.

Love is that undefinable powerful energy that lets connection exist between the soul and the body, the body and the world and the caring synthesis of every life force.

©Lucy Hamel