Day 5- Love

"To love another person is to see the face of God"

Les Miserables

What is Love. The generic definition is "a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person" but I don't think that really sums it up. Love has so many definitions in so many different situations. But I think that to love is to be God like, because true love requires selfless giving of yourself to another. In any situation, to love another requires you to give your time, your talents, your heart, etc....you cannot experience love if you think first of yourself.

I believe this is true in any relationship. Marriage, friendship, family. I'm sure you've heard the phrase "you hold the key to my heart" I don't believe that...no one else can hold that key. It is something you alone can hold. We all hold the keys to our own heart- we choose when it is open or locked.

I'm not sure I can tell you in my own words what love is so I am going to share my favorite quotes about love from some really smart people:

"In real love you want the other person's good. In romantic love you want the other person"

Margaret Anderson

"I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I'm with you"

Roy Croft

"the only true gift is a portion of yourself"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own"

Robert Heinlein

"The more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite"

William Shakespeare

"Love is friendship set on fire"

Jeremy Taylor

"Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love"

Erich Fromm

"you come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly"

Sam Keen

"True love begins when nothing is looked for in return"

Antonie de saint-Exupery

"true love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart"

Honore de Blazac

"if you know what love is, its because of you"

Herman Hesse

"one word frees us of all weight and pain in life. That word is love"

Sophocles

"there is no remedy for love but to love more"

Henry David Thoreau

To love is to see others through God's eyes. To accept someone for who they are as they are. Love is to serve with all our heart and to forgive when we are wronged. To love- one must give.