Love

Love, the big word. Daunting, fulfilling and wholesome.

I’ve been wondering, what does ‘love’ mean to me? My idea of this concept has changed over the years, and will continue to change through the years.

Only, I think I want to document what it means to me right now at 4:16 PM, 11th April, 2020, in the midst of a lockdown and pestilence.

Love, to me, means fulfillment in oneself first. Love, for me, is completeness within myself. A wholeness that I feel within my heart. This wholeness is difficult to maintain with the fast pace of this world, always rushing to the next checkpoint, next destination. But for me, this wholeness is now kind of a requirement, or at least a basis, for love.

Then, maybe love is balance to me. Balance within oneself and with another. And I don’t mean this in the context of ‘opposites attract’ or ‘you complete me’, but in terms of synchroneity that one feels with themselves and by extension, with their other.

Love is also friendship. One of the most important things I’ve come to think of love as: friendship. I think there’s a strength that can be mustered and maintained when one can be friends with their lover. When companionship is an offset of a deep, underlying friendship, love can blossom.

Love is trust and faith. Not blind faith, of course. But the kind of faith that requires a steady communication between two, or one, individual/s.

Communication, in the form of an exchange as well. Exchange of knowledge, exchange of emotions, abilities and ideas.

While the exchange remains important, so does an element of compromise. Compromise, however, is a tricky subject for me because it can quickly turn into blind giving, if not dealt with sensitively. I’m still figuring this one out.

The final thing that I can think of right now, 4:23 PM is happiness. Love is happiness.

Whether it’s towards yourself or someone else, whether it’s platonic or romantic or otherwise. Love should swell within you and make you feel golden. Very simply, it should make you happy.

And that’s something that I’ve started to believe in strongly.