Splendid Love

When one says "I love you", they have in mind, their own vision of what it means. How you perceive those words may not be what was intended. I suppose this applies to everything that we hear and say: there is a receiver and a sender, basically, and words do not always convey intent. As legions of people have learned, the L word is easily spoken but can be reality, only if proven. In romance, for example, it is  heard frequently during the "honeymoon" phase. It can be written or carved into a tree or traced in the sand and it is, perhaps even sincere - at the time. But Love has to be tested and it is, mostly, by Time, that old professor of truth. So what is love? It's, of course, an emotion and emotion has the word "motion" in it. It moves. Love is one thing one day and can be something else the "day after", a tenuous term: wispy and winsome. It must be handled and/or believed with care. The successful loves are those of long lasting relationships: friendships, marriages, associations. Familial love is also testable. Some family purveyors of the word, take it to mean, I love you if-you-do-what-we-want-you-to-do-or-be and if you do not, our love is removed. This kind of love never was actual but, merely a tool used to control and imprison someone with rules of conformity. This sort of love professed, is like a manacle and really not love at all. Love is free to be given and received without boundaries.  Families are often broken in this way. Sad, because family is the one safe place where one should be accepted no matter what. It is supposed to be a haven with people who take you in and care for you, even make sacrifices for you.  The most commonly cruel "love" is that spoken to take advantage of another. How many false romances are begun this way only to leave someone with scars. And sometimes what one sincerely thinks is love, over time, wears out and was not love at all but only infatuation. The greatest love is that which is strong and lasting and tested to be found true. If you've experienced such a love, you are indeed, a fortunate person. And those who have not, should never abandon the hope of finding or having the ability to give that kind of love. Love is a many splendored thing and it can, and should be, splendid.