Finding Love

 

Finding Love

Is love hard to find? Is it really that elusive “something” so wistfully and forlornly sung in the song “Where is Love?” from the Broadway musical/movie Oliver? 

Love is all around us. Hard to see or recognize, but it’s there. Regardless of news headlines and the discord from certain factions within our society over disputes about religion or governments, I get why it might be laughable to say this phrase out loud. As absurd as it might seem, still, I say, ‘love is all around us.’

For this post, I’m concerned about looking closely at my heart and what I see around me. I see it in social media posts of friends who clearly love their families, pets, projects, and the like. I see it in the faces of old friends lost and found and in the faces and embraces of the elderly among us. I see it in the faces of pleasant surprises. I see it in the grief of those bereft from being left behind by loved ones who’ve moved on before us. I see it in the smiles of children at play and grocery store clerks at the local Trader Joe’s or order takers at Chick-fil-A. My local grocery store has employees who know me by name and often ask about my day and I of them. Friendly, yes, of course, but I can’t shake the thought that these sentiments are voiced out of love. Isn’t that a nice thought?

I could continue citing examples of the expressions of love—but you get my meaning.

Conversely, I think it’s a shame when someone doesn’t allow love to grow in their heart for others. Not just the emotional, caring, and connected kind of love but also the physical one. It has its place. Many struggle with maintaining this feeling—our physical draw for one another. Many lovers, or potential lovers, struggle with this, and I think it’s sad. Not to be confused with limerence, but some say love is a choice. Forgive me for waxing like the poet Kahlil Gibran for a moment—however, I find that love is a recognition of like minds. A feeling of familial bonds that, like uneven threads, are woven together to form a lasting oneness or sameness in body, mind, and spirit.

We run the risk of love hurting us at times, but isn’t that the way of gardening, to be pruned so that we grow into the most beautiful self we can be? Broken hearts mend, and isn’t it lovely to know that we were loved once and can be loved again?

Or, through love—forgiven without recrimination.

Love is so essential today. We need each other; however slight the feeling might be, we must embrace the idea that a divine plan is at work when people connect with someone other than themselves. No one should live alone, be alone, die alone. As social animals, we desire to be a part of something. Let that be finding, embracing, and recognizing love when it’s presented.

It’s the best gift of life. 

~DaMarie

Photo Courtesy of Christopher Beloch

To read more about limerence, please click here.