Love is Five

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." -1 Corinthians 13:13

According to Wikipedia, love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment.

[1] In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels.

[2] Love may also be described as actions towards others (or oneself) based on compassion, or as actions towards others based on affection.

[3] In English, love refers to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from pleasure ("I loved that meal") to interpersonal attraction ("I love my partner").

[4] "Love" may refer specifically to the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love, to the sexual love of eros, to the emotional closeness of familial love, or the platonic love that defines friendship, to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love.

So here we have a wide and divergent use and meaning of the word love. When you put this into the context of every day human life, the complexity can only grow. We search for it, we try to understand it, we try to capture what love is in our life.

In a new book set to come out soon, the complex nature of what love is gets explained in simple to understand terms. The book "Love Is" will explain to you what love is in four parts. It will help you find meaning to love in your life and how powerful love is in your life.

Love is ...

Love Is Four

"The ultimate lesson all of us have to learn is unconditional love, which includes not only others but ourselves as well." -Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Unconditional love is a term that means to love someone regardless of one's actions or beliefs. It is a concept comparable to true love, a term which is more frequently used to describe love between lovers. By contrast, unconditional love is frequently used to describe love between family members, comrades in arms and between others in highly committed relationships.

Unconditional love also begins with understanding God's love for us and loving ourselves. In understanding that kind of love, we allow the feeling to generate within us and then we can share it to everyone and everything around us. That which we send out, returns to us in greater measure.

Love is not something to hold only inside, hidden away and saved for a rainy day. Love is meant to be given unconditionally, which in turn makes room for more love to fill our lives. Love is ...

Love Is Three

“Of course if you like your kids, if you love them from the moment they begin, you yourself begin all over again, in them, with them, and so there is something more to the world again.” -William Saroyan

Loving someone and being loved brings happiness into our lives. In our life there are many different loves that we have. You have the love of your spouse or partner. There are your parents, your family and children, or your best friend.

We all want and need love, it is an essential part of the human race. With love, we help each other, cooperate with each other, and reaffirm each other. And when love brings a man and a woman together, inevitably that love will create a family.

Family is a basic building block of our society. It is a community of life and love, that is intended to protect each family member and to communicate love. It gives you your identity and background, and a sense of belonging.

Within the family you are able to share each members daily experiences, and give life meaning. It is where you celebrate birthdays, holidays, and those important days in our life. It provides us with an opportunity to grow in virtue, love, generosity, and patience. You also learn that forgiveness is a key piece to being in a family.

And what started all of this?

Why of course it all started with love. It is sustained with love. It remains forever with love. Love is ...

Love Is Two

Love

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love." -Sophocles

I read a story recently about love explained in a way I never would have thought. The story goes that a woman asked a man if she was pretty, he said "No". She asked him if he wanted to be with her forever, he said "No". Then she asked him if he would cry if she walked away, he said "No". She had heard enough; she got up to leave.

As she walked away he grabbed her arm and told her to stay. He said "You're not pretty, you're beautiful. I don`t want to be with you forever, I need to be with you forever. And I wouldn't cry if you walked away, I would die."

Love is more than you can ask for. It is more beautiful than we can ever be. It lasts longer than we can exist in the natural. It dries any tears that we might shed. Love is everything in our lives.