Where Is the Love?

"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul." - Judy Garland

L. O. V. E.. The four letter word encapsulates the world. Yes, the world. Our little world of dreams, desires, ambitions and passions. Falling in love makes one heady. It's a feeling that is indescribable. The mischief of love is that it will creep in quietly and lighten our lives. It has endless definitions to it. Love can be for our pet dog, for gardening. Love could be spending time with our sibling. Love stands still, beauty in all she is. "Love rests on no foundation. It is an endless ocean, with no beginning or end." - Rumi. 

Sadly, love has been misconstrued in recent times. In fact, love time and again, has been misunderstood, for the 'apparent' emotion it carries. Yes, love is wanting to be with someone, that's the physicality of it, but that is not what defines it entirely. It's a mixed bag of emotions, love. It means responsibility, honesty, loyalty and care. It also brings with it respect, happiness, a bout of sadness and a lot of learning. To handle love is difficult as opposed to being in love. It's to be dealt with all our heart because to build on it is a task of great strength. Strength comes from feeling the emotion. It has the power to weaken one in the knees, but it also has the power to conquer all! However, one fails to understand that to conquer all, love needs to be understood. And this understanding comes when we come to terms with the fact that love isn't just about what we can take. It's about give as well. Love can't be about the outside, it has to be what's inside too. To love is not about being perfect, because honestly, there is no such thing as perfect. Perfection is merely how we would want it to be, because we have our rough edges, and to smoothen them we go ahead and create a bizarre idea of it, which by the way is a Technicolour dream that is meant to fit your television and not your life! (that's too much ranting, oops!) Because it's not always about beaches, white sands and blue skies.

Let's not objectify love. Let's not let it lose it's purity. Let's not abuse it as an excuse of being jilted. Let's not mistake it for the grotesque display. Let's embrace it for it's sentiment.

Below is an excerpt from "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" by Louis de Bernieres. And it completely blew me away =)

"Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don't blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being "in love", which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident."