What is love? Is it an emotion? Is it a choice we have to make every day? Is it an emotionless commitment we make to someone to stand by them through thick and thin? Is it a euphoric feeling associated with infatuation?
Like you, I love a lot of places, people, and things and of course I have an affinity for sweet, adorable animals.
Also like you, I use the word “love” to describe the feeling of an intense emotion for a particular thing.
“OMG! I love your house! It is so beautiful” or “I absolutely LOVE Mexican food, it is my favorite!”
So while most of us easily and effortlessly throw around the word love for superficial things like food, haircuts and jewelry – for some reason we sometimes stumble and grope over the same four letter word when trying to express that same emotion for a person.
“Have you told each other you love each other yet?” I asked my friend who had been sleeping with her boyfriend of six months. “Umm, no not yet” she admits rather sheepishly. “I think we are both afraid to be vulnerable and scared the other one might think it is too much too fast and so neither one of us wants to be the first to say it.”
Sound familiar? From the fear of speaking it too soon to the utter abandoned joy of expressing it to a sweet, precious baby – this tiny word is filled with a powder keg of emotion and a million self-help books on how to express it without blowing things up.
No doubt, the ancient Greeks would be baffled and befuddled by the idea that our language has evolved to the point where we have a “one word fits all” mentality to describe such a varied expression of the human heart.
That is why they had six different words for our current single word “love.” Eros, or sexual passion . . . philia, or deep friendship . . . ludus, or playful love . . . Agape, or love for everyone . . . pragma, or longstanding love . . . and philautia, or love of the self.
Perhaps if we had this complex understanding of the difference between loving our cat and deeply loving our spouse or sexually being infatuated by our new found flame – we might find a way to say what we really mean instead of grappling with the nuance of these three powerful little words. . . I love you.
The older I get the more I find I am less apprehensive about expressing myself with four letter words – funny how that works. But these days, whether I’m trying to express Eros, philia, agape, pragma or philautia, I simply choose to say . . .
“I love you”- three little words, so simple and yet so profound.
What is love? It is “I love you” and everything that goes with it and nothing that doesn’t.
Happy Valentines Day!
The Zen Den
Hello and welcome to The Zen Den. My name is Alison and while I am passionate about many things, my most inspiring driving force is human connection. Blogger, content writer, orthopedic exercise specialist, motivational speaker, international yoga pro, published songwriter, avid poker player, mom and wife are just a few of my titles. But when I do my job at NASA, I am known simply as “The Fairy Zenmother” a role I deeply love because people invite me into their space to help them find their center, relax and stretch their muscles and destress their mind. Here in the blogosphere version of The Zen Den, I invite you into my world where I will explore ideas for creating a better tomorrow and a kinder today. And hopefully, with insight, authenticity and humor; my words, observations and experiences will help you feel calm, centered, intellectually challenged and spiritually enlightened. Alternatively, if you have something you would like to see covered in The Zen Den, just let me know. Your feedback is welcome and valuable to the success of this blog. Finally, my heart is filled with gratitude to have this opportunity to share with all of you.
