I have been reflecting today on the difference Love has made in my life.
Love has allowed me to reach beyond myself and find out the person I truly am. Love has allowed me to be more of a person than I would have been, by discovering the freeing power of forgiveness and compassion. It has allowed me a global vision and a view of the world that truly reaches beyond the four-foot radius of impact that I actually have on the world.
I have found the reality of Romantic Love to be very different from what our world had originally sold to me. Thankfully, it’s not dependent upon sex every night. Thankfully, it’s not hinged on a perfect figure. Thankfully, it’s about more than just self-gratification.
I have found the beauty of Friend Love to be the mainstay of my sanity, especially on Bad Days. It seems the Angels in my life are attracted to me when I most need them, and I can’t help but think that perhaps there is a pole in me that gets empty of love and somehow attracts these little gestures of Love. I have experienced the amazing Girlfriend Love, with its “just thought of you” phone calls, “you’re in my prayers” notes, and “stopping by to check on you,” and have found it to be the salvation of my young mothering days.
I have smiled and brought tears to my own eyes with the joy of Family Love. This is the miracle that requires no blood (but does require a bond of some sort that can qualify as Family), but can save you from eternal misery. The lack of this can also, I think, cause no small amount of pain and heartache, or at least leave a hole in your life.
Love is what made it possible for me to look at a Fellow Human Being with something other than contempt, realizing how Small I also am and how different we’re not.
