How To Love + Why To Do It
What do you love? Your family. Your boyfriend or girlfriend. Your friends. We all love different kinds of things. But how do you love? In its rawest form, what is love and why should we do it.
“An intense feeling of deep affection.” To me, this definition has always fallen short. Love isn’t just a feeling, its action and thoughts and a physically palpable energy. Love is as complex as humans beings ourselves. And just as important.
Love gives us a reason to get up in the morning, whether we realize it or not. You can love your significant other and want to see them off before your day starts. You can love your dog and want to play with him and go for a walk. You can love going for a run in the morning. You can love to sit on the porch with your morning coffee and watch the sun rise. Love is in everything we do.
But love can also look like respecting other people’s boundaries. Waking up at 2:00 am to take care of your spouse when they are sick. Not buying that expensive item because you don’t have the money for it.
The list can go on and on. See, love isn’t always doing things we love or being with people with love, it’s about loving ourselves enough to be disciplined. Setting boundaries and enforcing goals. And doing that is vital for our success or failure.
Love yourself and those around to a higher standard. Don’t settle or fall short. Life has the capacity to be a grand adventure. Love life to such a degree some people think you’re crazy. The secret is that’s when you know when you’re doing it right.
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” – Mae West
It’s imperative that we love and we love hard. It keeps our hearts beating strong. It gives us meaning to keep going. God first loved us so that we can love. It’s in our very dna. Carved into our bones. Don’t let people shame you into thinking loving is weak. It’s endearing and unyielding. A flag in the ground that shows you will not shrink down or hide. Love is everything.
Take your love and give it wings. Spread it around to everyone and everything you meet. Love to give meaning to life. And at the end of the day, don’t let anyone shame you for feeling and caring. Those people need your love more than most so continue to shine. The world needs it now more than ever.