When Love Strikes

Love has many shapes, colors, and textures…it is likely the most overused, and underused word in the dictionary. Sometimes I think about how I’d feel if I lost someone, on a day, when I didn’t say those special three words, “I love you”…but, in reality, the people in my life know I love them…words are often just words. It’s actions that speak volumes. How does a person show their love? How do they let the person in their heart know that whatever they do for them is out of love? Maybe for a child, it’s doing chores without being asked. Could it be making someone a nice dinner when they have put in a long hard day? I recently put fresh sheets on my daughter’s bed because she had been on a tiring business trip, and I knew it would feel good to crawl into her clean bed…it was out of love, not out of obligation that I did this. I had pretty flowers and a card to welcome her home from all of us. Those are the actions of love. And she reciprocated love through her appreciation.
Showing someone you love him or her in actions means more than words. The words are merely an entry ticket to that person’s heart. It’s the entire play that says the most.
There are many different types of love. Such as the love from a father to a child, a mother to a child (yes, they are different). Better yet is the love of a child to a mother or a father. You would think they are the same, but the relationship is different. Therefore, the type of love is different. I lost my parents when I was young, so I don’t have the experience my son and daughter have in how they love me compared to how I love them. The same is true between grandparents and grandchildren…two types of relationships, two types of love.
Another is a young child to a friend or a grown-up who gains a new friend compared to a lifelong friend. There is the love between a person and their dog, cat, bird, or even gerbil. Or any other pet as an example. Another type is the love of sunsets or sunrises. The love someone feels when they see the first buds open up in spring. Or the love I, speaking personally, feel when watching the waves lapping against the sand without a care in the world. The pebbles of sand swishing around loving the moisture that engulfs them.
My husband and I are both strong independent people. Our personalities can cause conflict more than I’d like to admit. We push at each other hard, sometimes he more than me, and other times me more than him. In other words, it is our personalities that drive us apart, but it is our love that keeps us together.
Love isn’t something you can measure. Love isn’t something you can even explain…love is just love…the good, mysterious, warmest and the most beautiful emotion of all.