True Love? What's That?!

Someone asked me today if I believed in true love.  How do I respond to something like that?! There has to be true love out there for everyone, it is OUR responsibility to find it, hold on to it and never let it go.  Right?

I like looking for definitions of words that we as a society like to use to express our feelings and emotions for one another.  Love is defined in wikipedia as an intense feeling of deep affection.  What does that mean?  I have an intense feeling of deep affection for lots of things, from foods to pets and all else in between.  So why do people get held up on the word love?  What does love have to do with a marriage?  Is it really LOVE or the idea of love, just like the idea of marriage post that I wrote the other day.  The idea of true love is what keeps us in dead-end relationships but also what might give is the leap of faith to jump into one.  True love is different for everyone, my definition and idea of true love might be different from yours, from our elders, grandparents and so on.

Which brings me to my next question, does the definition of love change over time?  Is true love the feeling of butterflies in our stomach when we see, hear from or spend time with that special someone in our lives?  Is it the high school girl or boy inside of us that gets giddy with excitement when the phone rings or when we receive a text message from her/him?  Or is it more?  Is it the commitment that we show one another day in and day out that proves our love for one another, is it riding life’s roller-coaster and never looking back no matter what the obstacles that stand in our way are, facing those obstacles not as individuals but as one mind, body and soul together.  That is what I think true love is.

Someone once said that when we love, it isn’t because the persons perfect, but because we learn to see an imperfect person perfectly.  Seriously thought provoking stuff right?  No one is perfect, not me, not you, no one.  BUT, when we are with someone, we need to look past his or her imperfections, and extend our heart, mind and spirit to that person.  We need to commit completely and trust our heart with our partners and not hold back.  Holding back, building up a wall around you and your feelings only keeps people away.  Trusting in love, in your partner, in your soulmate will lead to true love.  Of course, your spouse must do the same, otherwise it is a one way street.  Both people need to give the relation 100% otherwise it is doomed before it even started.  Trust each other to not hurt but to care for and love each other and you will both experience the ever sought after true love.  Of course there are many other factors involved, but I believe this is one of the most important.  Without commitmence to love, the idea of true love will never appear.

The idea of true love is what we all seek, but few rarely find.  Do not rush into love, do not force it either.  I recently have started going back to church and have never been very religious in my adult life.  I have pushed away from God and looking back I can see where and when things started to go bad, and strangely enough I believe it started to go bad when I stopped looking for Him.  I am not going to turn this into a religious blog but I will say this.  God, whether you believe in him or not, did not intend for us to be alone.  He did not intend for us to live life without love, because if he would have he would not have created man and woman in his likeness.  Adam had Eve, created by God to love and to wed.  The oldest love story in history is of man and woman who loved each other.  Obviously it ended not so well but that is for another blog entry  .  Maybe something like why woman destroyed mankind!  LOL I am just joking but I do believe that old saying that God has someone special for each and every one of us.  It is up to us though to find that person and love them with open hearts.

I hope that answers the question.  Do I believe, yes, I do, BUT it takes work, hard work on both sides.  It is not a fly-by-night emotion, “oh I love her so now everything will be ok forever!”  No, this is not hollywood, this is real life and in real life there are many hurdles we need to jump and many doors we need to walk through.  Question is, will you walk through that door and jump over those hurdles with someone you truly love or by yourself?

xoxo,
Sheena <3