Indescribable

So what's your definition of love?

Everyone has a different one. Love means something different to every person. What have I found to be love? So many things. For me, love has been . . .

Confusing. Yeah, it's true. Maybe real love isn't supposed to feel that way, but for me, I'll yell it loudly and clearly - love is pretty darn confusing! This is a side of love that I did not experience until this past year.

Unquestionable. Maybe this would be the actual definition of what love really is. Maybe what I'm trying to say is that I have experienced a more questionable part of love. A part of love where I start to wonder if I love someone or why I love someone or if I should love someone a certain way.

Glazed. How do I explain that? Easy. Most people say that "love is blind," but I don't agree with that statement. If love were blind, then it would not be love at all. The reason that phrase is used is that people fall in love with a person, yet don't realize all of the problems that comes along with that love (usually for a person). I like to call it "glazed," because I think that in my case, I really did love, but my eyes were glazed over rather than blind. I loved, and I saw the problems, but I didn't do anything about it for the longest time.

WRONG. This is definitely true. Am I saying that it is wrong to love a person? Absolutely not. But maybe the kind of love with which you're loving a certain person is wrong. Maybe instead of loving a person for who he or she is, you love them for what they do or you put he or she up on a pedestal that was never real in the first place.

Disappointing. I have found this to be true in my own life. I never broke up with a boyfriend and I never dated a jerk. But I have been let down, disappointed, and in my own mind, forgotten. Sometimes the people you love the most disappoint you in unbelievable ways.

Painful. Of every definition for love, this may be the best one I could use for myself in the past year. Love is an incredibly painful thing. But maybe it's the pain that helps me realize that I really am loving, not just creating an idea in my own mind that I'm "loving" or "in love" with a person. Is this not a side of love that Jesus Christ experienced when He died on the cross?

Unexpected. Sometimes love comes from the craziest, most unexpected places. Who woulda thought how some people got paired up? I will attest to this truth: love is most definitely a suprise!

The list could possibly go on for a very long time. Those are the sides of love that I have experienced. But what is real love? I don't think that's a question any one person could answer on a whim, much less after great thought. If anything, love is real mystery to most. Some want to crack it's confusing code, some spend their entire lives searching for it, and some are content experiencing it in it's many forms.

I know people talk about love all the time. It just may be the most popular subject that's talked about in life, am I right? Our world, our lives, our relationships are all surrounded by "love." What other aspect could be painful and lonely or exciting and beautiful? Could one other thing be so diverse, so ecclectic, so versatile? And then you have the people who call love "a choice." This is, in part, true. For some people, love is the easiest thing ever. And then you have those people in your life that make love the most difficult thing in the entire world. It's those people that you have to choose to love - not the people that are amazing in your life.

Why are we so obssessed with having the romantic side of love? I'm not rebuking people, I'm sincerely asking this question? Why does our motives, our thoughts, and our desires continually revolve around that feeling of love, of wanting to be loved? Is that not our greatest desire in life? To be desired - to be loved - genuinely, positively, and wholly loved in this lifetime? Knowing that someone finds you attractive, appealing, the best person in the entire world - now wouldn't that be the greatest!

Did you notice that there are more songs written about love than any other subject?

Did you ever watch a movie that did not include even a hint of love, and in many cases, romance in it?

So many questions, such obvious, blatant answers. The most confusing part of life is sitting in the chair next to you, stairing you in the face, waiting for you to look over so it can smack you, and then smack some sense into you. Love is what you make it - love is defined by how you experience it, how you react to it, and what you decide to do with it. Love is not able to be defined, because it is different for every person, but ultimately, love is your decision.