Chesterton and CS Lewis said it best....

“Love is not affectionate feeling...
...but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained." --C.S. Lewis1

"The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost." --G.K. Chesterton2

I'm learning alot about love lately... I never knew what love was like until I got into, and out of, a serious relationship. Every person has their own definitions of love. I have my own definition; my own theory: Love is not a feeling technically... you cannot feel love until you have loved. Love is an action, love is a verb. Something you choose to do. And love isn't easy. It's not just staring into someone's starry eyes... it's picking them up when they're down... and, if you can't pick them up, it's laying down next to them and listening. C.S. Lewis had a lot of excellent things to say about love: "To love at all is to be vulnerable." I know how you feel when you're vulnerable, think of a small child lost in a supermarket. It is something that is scary at first and once the fear wears off, it is uncomfortable, and once that wears off and you learn to trust yourself with someone, it is bliss. If someone asked me if I would be vulnerable, I would generally get defensive and say "Not on your life!" ... but you have to choose to be vulnerable to love someone. You have to give everything up, give yourself up. You have to take a bullet for someone. You have to lie down at their feet. You have to overlook their flaws. You have to live with their flaws. You have to be quick to forgive and slow to anger. You have to speak the truth in love. You have to love when you're not getting anything in return, and you have to keep yourself from loving in expectation of getting something in return. It's not an easy thing for me to trust someone. Although I basically love everyone and get along with them, I don't necessarily trust them. Trust must be earned and kept. Love cultivates, it doesn't dominate. Love someone else and you will be happy; it's as simple and as difficult as that. I know I've never been IN love, but I do believe that I am learning to deeply love someone else. Love is removing the masks and loving still. Love is not caring deeply, but above all, understanding. But, even though it has its complications and sorrows, love is a feeling that is inexpressibly wonderful.3

"As a snowflake, icy-edged, unique in shape and kind,
So a soul traversing, alone until it finds
One to which it cleaves and forms, a new and wondrous thing,
God in perfect wisdom makes the human heart to sing."4

Knowing there is someone who loves you, or is coming to love you, is knowing there is life after death. The only place where love is perfected is heaven, but on this earth you may get a glimpse of heaven. Love is the healing force of the universe. The most powerful gift you can give. No one can take away a love now lost. No one can steal those concrete memories. And no force on earth or below can steal your ability to love someone else. Even if you don't feel you can love someone, you can act is if you love them and you will come to love them in the end. I've found that the easiest way for me to transcend the feelings of anger or jealousy towards someone is to consistently pray for them. I may not love them or care about them, but prayer can lift the shadow. Love is a weight and it's hard to bear at times, but there is Someone who can share the burden. And you can be that someone to someone else. The greatest experience and one of the hardest in my life has been learning to love someone else. And yet, despite the weight, it's the most freeing experience I've ever had.5

I pray that you will all experience the force of love in your life today,
Vanessa