What is Love?
Valentine’s Day, which just passed, is the one day of the year dedicated to love. But I think every day in some small way should be dedicated to love. I can honestly tell you that I say or think about love several times a day. I realize that people come packaged with different feelings about love. If I could attach a label on my back concerning my feelings on the subject of love, it would say, “I love life.” It is not a Pollyanna saying. It is an expression of my feelings.
I wrote this story early Valentine’s morning as the sun opened her eyes and rose up out of the east and I recall saying aloud, “I love you, sun.”
“Feeling the emotion of love gives you a marvelous tilt on life. A song, a letter signed with the word love, the key turning in the lock letting you know someone you love is home, licks from your pooch, a friend’s phone call, a sunset, a perfect apple pie, nature, laughter, a new idea, and last but not least knowing you made someone happy.” — Honey Good
And, with that, it dawned on me how many ideas, people, and things I attach the word ‘love’ to — from my favorite color green to my one and only ultimate concierge.
Think about the many things you love. And, how many times you hear yourself say the word. Love. Amazingly marvelous, isn’t it?
If you know someone who could use a dose of love, please share this story with them.
What Else Can We Love?
I also thought about how often I say the word love and attach it to meaningful people, meaningful events, meaningful experiences, meaningful items, and lastly, how the word love makes me feel. Love makes me feel warm, content, and joyful because it is an intense feeling of deep affection and nothing can make a person feel better than to know they are loved and their ability to give back, love.
In the morning, when I water my orchids, I think about the word ‘love.’ As I touch each leaf, one at a time, and say, “I love you.” I love their beauty. This is because I love the memory attached to my orchids — my pooch, Orchid, and my life in Honolulu.
During the day, I bend down several times to hug my pooch America and tell him, “I love you.”
I walk around our condo in the sky and feel an outpouring of love for our keepsakes. Those trinkets my ultimate concierge and I purchased as keepsakes, with memories from my parents, my children, my grandchildren, my grandmothers, aunts, and friends.
My Ultimate Love for My Ultimate Concierge
And, above all, on a very personal level, I think about my love for my ultimate concierge because he has given me all of his heart for 34 years. And, he is sexy!
Feeling the emotion of love gives you a marvelous tilt on life. A song, a letter signed with the word love, the key turning in the lock letting you know someone you love is home, licks from your pooch, a friend’s phone call, a sunset, a perfect apple pie, nature, laughter, a new idea, and last but not least knowing you made someone happy.
There Is Love Between Partners
Most of us feel a strong love and connection in marriage or long-term partnerships. Others of us live in relationships that need work, and others divorce.
Taylor Swift’s lyrics in the song “Lover” pose this question,
“And there’s a dazzling haze, a mysterious way about you, dear
Have I known you twenty seconds or twenty years? … Can we always stay this close, forever and ever?”
In my marriage, by good fortune and good thinking, two ingredients have kept the dazzle strong for 34 years.
Firstly, we don’t have to ‘compromise’ because we enjoy the same things, the same type of people, and lifestyle. We are soulmates in every sense of the word.
When couples don’t have to make major compromises, the dazzle in their relationship stays intact.
But, if you want to travel and he wants to stay home and read about travel, neither of you is going to be happy! If you put your children first and he puts you first, there is a disruption in the relationship and the dazzle is diminished.
Finding Strength After 50: Exploring Challenges and Building Community
Secondly, we aim to make each other happy. We ‘give back’ to one another in large and small ways. This happens on a daily basis. This sparks the emotions of love, admiration, and attraction.
Therefore, if you are the woman after 50 who has a second chance at love, the most important decision you will make is who you choose to be your soulmate – the ideal person that meets your needs. The ideal person you want to give back. Voila.
If a woman is a good picker – she knows what she needs – the odds are she will have a love affair that will last the ebb of time.
So to Taylor Swift, I say: Yes, the dazzle can last forever depending on who you choose to be your soulmate.
Love is Documenting Your Priorities
I think February is a good time to document your priorities about what you love, what you like, and what you are hanging onto that does not make your heart sing. I think this is the perfect month to wrestle with your intentions because Spring is right around the corner. Spring forward, sweet reader, spring forward. Decide what you love and tackle it.
Love is Saying I Love You.
When you say I love you, I think, it is the ultimate positive human experience. It is so gentle. So giving. So rewarding. So mesmerizing. It is also, firecrackers going off throughout your body and your soul. The word love has all the bells and whistles. It is the one perfect universal word in the dictionary.
And, love is also saying ‘no’ to people, gadgets, political ideology.
I don’t know why some women bubble over with showing love and some are quiet with their emotions. I don’t know why some of us give love. And, others take love. And I don’t know why some women are unequipped to handle love. I don’t know why.
I think the saying, love makes the world go round is true. And, that the lack of love is a stagnating feeling.
Love is Saying No
The serenity of saying ‘never again’ is sending personal love. You decided some people, gadgets, a boring job, an old neighborhood, stressful political ideology — whatever — from your life and exchange them with your new and fresh bucket list!
Now you have permitted yourself to love what lights your fire because now sweet reader, you are bestowing love upon yourself. Just, learning to say no is an act of love.
You Are All Around Me = Total Love
“You are all around me” is a sentence from an Academy Award-winning movie. I don’t recall its name.
My ultimate concierge is ‘all around me.’ No matter where I am. No matter who I am with. No matter if I am alone – Sheldon F. Good is all around me.
When Taylor Swift asks in her song, “Lover,”
“Can we always be this close, forever and ever?”
My answer: “If you feel ‘he is always around you, yes! If not take a pass.”
Here is to love!!!!!
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What a beautiful and heartfelt reflection on the essence of love! Your words truly resonate with me, as you capture the multifaceted nature of love and its profound impact on our lives. From the simple joys of saying “I love you” to the deeper connections that bind us to our soulmates, your message celebrates the beauty and power of love in all its forms.
I particularly appreciate your emphasis on self-love and the importance of setting boundaries, as well as your poignant reminder to prioritize what truly lights our fire. Your insights inspire a sense of empowerment and encourage us to cultivate love in every aspect of our lives.
Thank you for sharing this touching reminder to cherish and nurture the love that surrounds us, both within ourselves and in our relationships with others. It’s a sentiment that truly warms the heart and reminds us of the profound impact that love can have on our journey through life.
You are a beautiful writer. Thank you for your heartfelt response to my story. I wish you love in Springtime. Warmly, Honey