Being in a relationship is many things. To quote a classic song, love is a many splendored things. It's amazing, it's fun, it's fulfilling, it's sad, it's hard and it's all that.
As I was skimming through the dictionary, and yes I still have a dictionary, I stumbled upon the word love. The book defined the word as " a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person", it also defined it as "attraction that includes sexual desire" I think I like this definition, going by the meaning of it, arousal is some form of love, I guess. LOL. The third definition offered is " a person you love in a romantic way" really? I mean, really?! You use the word to define the word itself? What is this? Inception? Come on Merriam! Get ahold of yourself Webster!
The bible also has its definition of the word LOVE :
Corinthians 13:4-8New International Version
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, 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. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
Even with all that it does not really paint a concrete picture of what love is.
With this article I will offer you some words that in my opinion relates to the concept we all love to love. LOVE.
Acceptance
Nobody is perfect. That is a fact. We all carry some kind of defect. It may be in our personality, our physical stature, or the defect may even be from our experience in the past. No matter how good a person is, there will always be at least a speck of something bad in his or her being. When you LOVE a person, you look passed those things that could be considered negative and accept the person you love in whole entirety. It is often say that Love is Blind, I say nay, it is not. Love sees all but it does not care. One user from Noise offered a better sounding phrase for that : Love is not blind, but it does not mind. I just forgot who said it to me, I deeply apologize for that, please forgive me. But I genuinely liked how she put it. That is exactly what I meant.
Benevolence
Although this word sounds so fancy, I relate this to LOVE simply because love is genuinely kind. I don't know about you but kindness is one truly observable sign of love. The acts of kindness you can offer from simply loving a person are endless. If you love a person, you shall strive to show kindness at all times towards him or her. It's as simple as that. Oftentimes, you can see that someone knows about love in the kindness in their eyes. There is that mild sparkle and twinkle that is evident in their gaze and stare.
Care
Also as a requirement, you tend to care for someone you claim to love. You do not want anything bad to happen to them. You always want them to be safe, you want them to be treated nicely and correctly. I see girls flexing their care packages their significant others gave to them. It's called a care package because it is not just chocolates in there, it's not just candies and other treats in the package, it's the thoughts and hopes of the giver that the person may feel a little bit better with those things, since they are going through something that they can't help or assist with.
Dedication
Dedication is a feeling of very strong support or loyalty according to the dictionary. And when it comes to LOVE, support and loyalty play huge roles in its success. You shall offer unending support to the one you love and not to mention the loyalty should be present because it's a necessity as important as oxygen. There's a famous comparison between loyalty and faithfulness. What are your thoughts about that? Are they different or are they one and the same? When you are in love, you dedicate your time, your resources, and almost everything you have to the person that is the object of your affection.
Expression
Expression is how you relay, how you convey or how you deliver a message, a concept or an idea. When you are in love with somebody, the urge to express and to show your affection is immense. People also have different ways of expressing love, and also we all have different perception of feelings, hence love languages. Some people may appreciate grand gestures, some people find it embarrassing. Some of us find constant communication a crucial thing while others find it suffocating. If you want to express your love for somebody, it's important to understand which expression he or she would appreciate. And that's the way you should express your love to him or her.
Forever
One of the most used words when it comes to love is this: FOREVER. It is often used as a sign of promise of a never ending love and commitment. But since it is used like the letter 'e' in the alphabet, this word started to have a negative connotation associated with this. Then why did I include it here? It's simply because I believe that true love is really for ever and ever. Eternal. Through infinity and beyond. Once you truly love a person, that love will stay in you for the rest of your life. Even if the relationship won't work out, I believe that the love for each other, if true, will always stay. It is something you can terminate as a relationship ends, it is not like that. You might think that it may be unfair for your next partner if you are still in love with another person. It will not be unfair as long as you give everything you got and everything you have for that person. If you commit your entirety to them everything will be okay. Anyone who says that they don't love a person anymore is either lying or they never loved that person at all.
Love stays with a person for all eternity, it's just a matter of degree and intensity. You might love a person in the past a little less now, to a tolerable and minimal degree, that you can consider it a non-threat to your present. But it is still there, it will never be gone. There is no shame in accepting that fact, and we should not be guilty about it either. It is just crucial that we see to it that the past love will not in any way impede our current relationship. Some people, to compensate with that fact, will give 110% of their capabilities to their current partner. We could all strive for that while keeping in mind the old song, Too Much Love will Kill You...
Notes:
I will be splitting this article for readability purposes. I do not want to see a TL:DR on my comment section, so please bear with me. :)
The Alphabet of Love ( Part 2 )
Hey there!
Thank you for reading this article. I would gladly hear your thoughts about this, about love or anything else. Kindly drop by on the comment section. Thanks!
And as always, cheers!!!
Sources:
Lead Image : Photo by Shamia Casiano from Pexels
Image 1 : https://joshuashawnmichaelhehe.medium.com/the-meaning-of-love-bc8af32c9ad2
Here I come digging what is love again lol🤧