I know

I know what love is. I suppose I could print out the stuff about love that can be found in the book of Corinthians in the Christian Bible. Lots of people have seen that before and I am actively choosing not to get all religious like in the blog.

What I really want to do with this post is to share that this is my personal experience about knowing what Love is. This isn't about words shared by someone else. This isn't about something that evokes a great deal of romanticism, or anything like that.

It is about something that is very real. Very natural, and very much here on this planet.

Should I tell you what Love is not? Those words may seem easy, but they really are not as easy to define as it would be for me to say what I know that Love is. But I do want to say a few things about what Love is not. Love is not something you simply say and it becomes so because you said it. It takes so much more than words to actually love a human being. You actually have to put some effort into it.

By way of example. You can say you love your child (assuming you have children). But to simply say it is meaningless. You have to give of yourself to that child. You have to give your time, your energy, your very effort to see that the child gets the care they need. We all know that in the beginning you have to feed them, transport them (because they can't walk), and provide them with shelter and all other needs (like changing dirty diapers). As they grow, the needs change, but as a parent there is no let up in providing for those needs. There is no let up in giving of yourself, your energy, time, and effort.

So a person who once told me that she loves me, but then followed up with, you guessed it, nothing. Is not a person I can say loves me. I once said in this blog that she probably does not understand what it means to love, and does not understand what it means to care about a person. She proves it by her words (and lack of words) and by her actions.

I digress. This is about me knowing what Love is. Why do I know what it is? Because I am loved. Because, aside from my family relationships (parents, children, siblings, etc), there are two women who really do Love me. Each of them has proven over and over that they are willing to give of themselves, to give me their time, their energy, and their effort to see to my well being. They will do whatever they can to remove anything that makes me unhappy, and provide whatever they can to bring me happiness.

They are both still very much real persons. They both desire to be loved in return. They both want time and energy and effort. They have times that their wants and desires for themselves override the wants and desires for another person. Like I said, it is very very real.

It doesn't just happen easily. It isn't all kinds of romantic. It is just real and natural and it is life and it is Love.

I do know what Love is. I doubt my feeble words written in this post give it any kind of justice. But I can honestly say that there are lots of people in this world who should know what Love really is.