What is love anyway? Could it really be an emotion only felt between parents and children? And all the rest of so called "lovers" are all just make believe? It would appear to me, in my experience of fifty years, that parents are the only people who love their kids unconditionally, and vice versa. Kids love parents who abuse them, lie, cheat, steal, and run over their dog! You may love your girlfriend, but if she sleeps with your man, are you still going to love her? So then, what was that emotion you labeled love? Wasn’t it just like, with an added care and tug at the heart? Or can love disappear as quickly as it appears? Is it a feeling that severs it’s attachment when anger rises above it’s counterpart of love? I’m angrier than I am in love?
Why do we say love, in the closing of an e mail to one person, and not to another? Do we not love all people? Do we just feel more special about some, more than others? What the hell is love? We can trust someone, and like them, not love them. So trust is not the difference. We can think someone is handsome or beautiful, and not love them, so looks isn’t the difference between like and love. We can enjoy being in someone’s company all the time, like the same movies, the same books, share the same values and philosophies, and not be in love, although, I wonder why in this case! What makes us cross over from like to love, and worse yet, from love to hate? Are feelings and emotions different? Are feelings less intense than emotions? Do we think we are emotionally attached to someone, when in reality, we’re really just having "feelings" for them? Is that why the relationship can end over material or superficial reasons? Wouldn’t the emotion of love sustain all obstacles? What the hell is love?
And love other than mother/father/sister/brother. That’s where all the commitment and loyalty and unconditionality lies. But what about in other relationships? Where does the curtain come down and say, "We’ve moved from like to love?" And what is the difference? Can "love" forgive, while "like" just forgets and is on their way? Would "love" hold your hand on your death bed, and "like" just come by once and a while to visit? Is "love" all consuming, while "like" can forget you while doing other things? Would "love" give you a kidney, and "like" tell you they already donated theirs? What is love?
Could it be a connection of energy that two people only feel when they are with one another? Is it an unspoken understanding of what someone is thinking and saying, and understanding why they are? Is it a passion that you never felt with another human being? Is it the way you feel you’ve left your body and gone to Heaven when you are intimate with one another? No shame, no guilt, you know you’re where you’re supposed to be.
I believe in the truth, and I believe in hope, and I am strong and focused and prepared to fight to finally have some stability. How in the world would it feel to know I was safe, and my kids always had a home to live in both now, and to come back to?
Maybe that's what love is.
|
|
|
|
|
Susan Thom is the mother of three children, two sons, 17 and 21, and a daughter 22. Writing calms her, and gives her a place to go. By herself! Clears the head and gets it out. She lives in a rural area, with a lake and mountains, her son and her partner, and has loved writing since she was a child.
She certainly hopes you enjoy her take on life, and her style of communicating that in stories.
She has been on a journey of self discovery for twenty years, and has learned many things about the human mind, and how to maintain some semblance of calm and peace within.
If someone reads one of her stories, and relates to her feelings, and maybe gets a suggestion on how she dealt with them in a positive way, that would be the ultimate gift of her writing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
