7-28-19

Dear Reader,
Hey. I hope you're doing well today!

Today I would like to talk (write) about L♥VE.

There are different kinds of love. There's the kind of love you feel for family. There's the love you have for your friends. The love you have for your better half that is intimate. And then there is the kind of love that is spiritual.

Family love: this develops as your ability to recognize love for what it is develops. One often learns more about their sibling or parent than they learn about themselves as they grow from children into adults. Whatever love we are born with is first attached to those who are constantly around us. The parents who feed and protect us. The siblings we pay and relate with. Family.

Then there is the angle of the parent. You create your own child. Their lives are completely in your hands. And you are everything to that child. When they cry, you want to be their savior. When they laugh, the sun rises inside of you. They love you with the purest form of love. The uncorrupted, untainted pure love of an innocent child to their parent.

Friendly love: we develop this kind of love as we get to know someone and enjoy their company. For some it comes and for some, it's hard. The way love develops in your heart depends on the path you've traveled in life. There is a lot of appreciation that is born from this love. The friend who listens to you, helps you through a tough time, shares in all your joys and pains.

There is no familial obligation for a friend to stick around when times get tough. They do it simply because they care. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) wrote: "A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud... A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature."
—Friendship

I do not disagree with him.

Intimate love: Now this love is the most intricate of them all. This is the one that history has shown us in the greatest of stories. But also the worst for wars.

People have been inspired to live life to its fullest, to become everything that they can be. The best version of themselves because of this love. But people have also been driven mad...

This love is passionate, tender, powerful... For some it's simple and for some it's complex. It just depends on the people involved.

One thing is for certain—love is selfless. William Blake (1757-1827) wrote: "Love seeketh not itself to please, nor itself hath any care. But for another gives its ease and builds a heaven in hell's despair."
—The Clod and The Pebble, Stanza 1

That is real love. So many people confuse lust for love and dive in only to find out the water's not that deep and the bottom hurts.

Imagine if all relationships consisted of each partner completely focused on pleasing the other. What a world that would be, right?! :D

If one person is constantly giving but not receiving, that relationship is going to burn out. Even if the love of the giver is real, love, like all things of substance, has to be nourished. Without nourishment, it'll wither. So, if you're in a relationship and you're not giving as much as you're receiving, you should meditate on this.

Spiritual love: no matter if you are religious or not, you have this love. Your god's name can be Jehovah or Allah, Yahwey, or Buddha. Or your god can be Mother Nature. Or your god can be self-proclaimed. You have this form of love.

This love rules the hearts of those who are firm believers of their faith. That love is the beginning of life. And if we practice love in this life, it will welcome us more abundantly in the next.

When viewing the world as a whole, this love is the most profound. Millions upon millions have died due to religious wars. But one could easily ascertain that more has been saved. It rules the world in some sense. It is the backbone of many nations. Many political powers.

So, what do we know about love? That everybody wants to be loved. The only way to hold onto love is to respect it. And that means treating it the same selfless way that it treats you. Well, we didn't discuss this. But it hurts like hell to lose it.

Until next time.

Yours truly,
Doug