Do You Choose to Love?

 

There is love and then there is love.

The word is the same, but two very distinct and individual experiences, as the depth of love is limitless.

You meet a boy or a girl or whatever your heart desires.

You spend hours talking.

You learn their likes and dislikes; what makes them laugh; what makes them sad.

You go out to the movies and dinner.

You blush when they whisper in your ear how much you mean to them.

Your breathing quickens when they touch you.

You make love.

You love them.

They love you.

It’s not an oversimplification of the process by which two people become connected, but the sequence of events (give or take a few artistic liberties) that unfolds between two people on the journey.

It’s beautifully intimate; lying in your lover’s arms and wishing you could hold on to that feeling forever.

But then there’s love; the love where you have to make a conscious decision to continue to be connected to another person. Because while we may yearn to hold on to the feeling of being in their arms forever, it fades.

It fades when you get up and real life does its spastic “fuck you” dance on your face every day. There’s the pressures of work, the stress of school, the mental baggage from childhood and previous relationships, the responsibility of being a parent, and the never ending list of things we all must do to function in day to day life. Most couples I know that have called it quits often point to the real world creeping in on the peace they created with each other. And it is at this point when you have to make that conscious decision to continue to love.

When faced with betrayal, hurt, anger (even over the smallest of issues), it’s difficult to think back to that person who made your heart race with just a kiss. The matter in which we try to chase this faded memory is when we experience what it’s like to decide to pursue true love.

For some, the pursuit is made with others; moving from one person to the next, spending a lifetime chasing … love.

For others, those who are strong enough to look into themselves and the person that pushed their heart to its capacity, they choose to … love.