By Ceylan Hassan
What comes to your mind when you hear the word love? Is it passion, your partner, relationships, friends, family, sex? Everybody is different and yet so similar to one another, one may agree and say my partner or relationship comes to mind and another may say family. But what about all the things in between: trust, understanding, time, effort, loyalty, acceptance… do any of us ever think about any of these when saying those three tiny words which are so sacred? Is it as easy as it sounds?
The Oxford dictionary’s definition of love is “Love (noun) 1. a strong feeling of affection.” To me it is an emotion best felt rather than explained: it isn’t the pain that hurts but memories left behind and the so many unanswered questions when a break up or a loss occurs. People deal with break up, loss and what can be called life’s hurdles in various ways – some through tears, some with laughter and some by starting a new chapter at the first opportunity. Whichever it is, somehow love always seems to keep on going…
The late Beatles singer John Lennon once said: “Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.” So beautifully put and one assumes hardly ever applied in the case of relationships that come to an end. A friend earlier this week shared his thoughts on love. He said: “I think love is happiness, peace, trust, being in love and then after all this then comes sex.” I found his choice of order pleasing and then remembered the first words he said when I asked him what love is: “Love is starting life once again.”
What do I think about love? I shared mine in an SMS message I wrote on Valentine’s Day this year: Love isn’t flowers, chocolates or diamond rings, love isn’t a girlfriend or boyfriend or having someone to take to dinner .. Love is the family who have brought you to today, the friends who have been there through thick and thin, love is being far away but being so close you reach out to touch, it’s sitting in silence with each other and not feeling the need to say a word, love is sharing everything you go through the good and bad, it is taking a moment to thank God for all you have, love is remembering, it is knowing how to care, listen, appreciate and not give up no matter what, love is in every breath you take, it is warmth, passion, old, young and sadly pain for those we have lost. Love is a feeling that lives on forever..
Take a moment and think about what love is next time you say I love you.