There are many ways that we express our love for another person. On Valentine’s Day, candy, flowers, and cards are favored. Maybe this is because love as an emotion or as a concept is hard to put into words. When you love someone, you feel it, but its description is elusive. “Roses are red, violets are blue, it’s all in my head, I love you,” just doesn’t cut it. I find it hard to find the right language. The words don’t do it justice.
Love has been analyzed and categorized. It comes in different forms for different people, and it meets different needs at different times. There is Eros, Philia, and Agape, straight, gay, and non-binary. Scientists have tried to describe it in evolutionary terms, wars have been fought over it, and philosophers have pondered it.
Saying it well
But there are some gifted people in the world. I’ve been moved by the ways that some poets have expressed love. Here are two examples:
Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.
Untitled, by Rupi Kaur
love will come
and when love comeslove will hold you
love will call your name
and you will melt
sometimes though
love will hurt you but
love will never mean to
love will play no games
cause love knows life
has been hard enough already
(Milk and Honey, page 60)
Another way
My belief is that love is best expressed in actions, not words. It is shown with presence, not presents. In church they say that the greatest love is giving one’s life for another. And while we may not all be able to die for a loved one, we can give up parts of our lives — our time. While gifts may be nice, experiences are ineffable — they are forever. It may be as simple as doing the dishes or taking a walk, and it may not be anything profound, but I hope I can continue to find meaningful ways to show some small part of what I feel.
Just for fun
I found a couple things that you might enjoy while I was writing this post. Take a look:
Taylor Mali – How falling in love is like owning a dog.
