Many will say love is complicated…

There is the love you feel when it is a crush – and that’s not real – it is just a rush crush.  Endorphins revving.  Passion at the moment….Until we notice the object of our affection really isn’t who we, in our pink glasses, thought they were.  And then it is over as swift as it began leaving us feeling spent and maybe a little bit dirty.

Then there is selfish “love”.  When we look to someone else to serve our emotional need and we eat it, drink it and “love” it as long as our egos are fed and the other person requires nothing back. Damaging, unsustainable, narcissistic and neurotic.

There is insecure love.  The kind were where we see ourselves only through their reflection – this kind of love will destroy us – because we are not loved, we are owned and our value is tied to another’s whim.

There is also the kind of love that people pursue because they are unhappy in their own skin.  This love is dark, destructive and because they say, do and live in a false narrative to fulfill their version of themselves the person lives a lie and a self-created deception.  Either they will find themselves out or be found out – which causes “love” to come crashing down and leaves the person void, broken and unfulfilled.

Then there is another kind of love.  The kind that imbues friendship, selflessness, sacrifice and single-mindedness.  Love where we are willing to put the other person first not because we try- but because it is reflexive.  This love, this me second, them first – when reciprocated by the object of our love – is the kind of love that allows mountains to be forged, hearts and actions to rise to an exquisite religion and a love that will last through death.  

This is the love that futures are built upon, generations are spoken of and it is this love, THIS KIND, that makes the earth a better place to live, to love and to be. It is this love, one of for better for worse – that God designed the union of man and woman to have.  This love, that understanding, forgiveness, passion and purpose stands strong throughout the winds of time and change.

It is this kind of love that I pray you and yours will always know.

Happy Valentines Day. 💞