Letting love guide my life....

"And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." Have you ever noticed how often the bible talks about love? Love is something you can't see, you can't smell it or touch it. It's one of those things that has no logic. You have to FEEL it. For someone like me, one of the scariest things in life is to not use logic and use only my feelings. Logic is safe....makes sense. I base all my decisions on logic, I don't use my feelings to make decisions. It's one of the reasons I don't have unnecessary drama in my life. I think about things before I act on them...usually causes better decision making. Something I have learned this year is that sometimes that all goes out the window and you have to choose love. 

There are different types of love. The love you feel for your child is very different than the love you feel for your spouse, parent or friend. 

The love you feel for your child is unconditional. There is nothing they can do to stop that love. You may not agree with their decisions, you may not even like your children some days....but the unconditonal love is always there. I have been tested to he extreme for this one. No matter the struggles with Gabe, I have loved him with every piece of me...even when it was not easy to even like him. There is nothing he can do to stop my love.

I am not married but know the feeling of being in love. It's a great feeling...euphoric....but not unconditional. I am fortunate enough to feel that "in love feeling." When you feel like nothing else matters but that time you have together. There are times you fall in and out of love. Love becomes a choice at some point. You have to have that strong foundation built, once you do the struggles and good times will come and go and you have to make the choice to love that person and never give up.  I believe that once you fall in love with someone, that love can always be reignited. Just like a candle....when you blow out the flame, you can light it again, but it takes a while for the wax to liquefy. If both people are willing to try and work at it, that flame can burn brighter than ever!

The love I have for my family is unique. They know my life story...have been there through each trial, tribulation, joyless occasion and accomplishment. There's a comfort with my family that I can't have with anyone else just because of the amount of time and history that's involved. They know my every flaw and good quality and love me no matter what. You can't pick your family though. It's a crap shoot really. But no matter what, there's a bond there...it's unexplainable. I am fortunate to have the most amazing family ever! I know you are all thinking your family is the best....but that's just because you have never met mine. ;)

The love you have for friends is so unique. Unlike your child and family, you pick these people. You go about life, meet someone and say, "yep...your my kind...come play in my sandbox." It's hard to say what makes you connect with one person or another, but the love is something that grows with time. You make memories together and see each other through the good and bad times and create a bond. There's a "soul connection" between certain friends. As if, part of your soul would not be whole if that person was not helping you feed it. I have a large group of friends....from many walks of life...all different in so many ways. They are from different socio economic classes, professions, views on politics and life in general. There's no rhyme or reason with a generalization of theses people "I picked to be in my life." Except one thing...they all have a great deal of compassion and love for the people that they love. 

Bringing us right back to that word again. The one thing that ties us all together is love. Even though love scares me because it leaves me vulnerable....I will continue to try to only surround myself with people that have that same goal....to love. :)