Learn to Love

Learn to love challenge, and you'll fill your life with accomplishment.

Learn to love effort, and your skills will grow more valuable with each passing day.
Learn to love making a difference, and doors will quickly open for you wherever you go.

Learn to love giving freely of yourself, and you'll receive more fulfillment than you ever could imagine.
Learn to love being the authentic person you are, and everything you do will be infused with integrity.

Learn to love whatever work you're doing, and that work will bring abundant rewards.
Learn to love beauty for beauty's sake, and you'll discover a wealth of it in places no one else would even think to look.

Learn to love unconditionally, and there will be no limit to what your love can accomplish.
Learn to love life just because it is, and each day will be a grand new adventure.

Learn to love the moment you're in, and you'll find richness in every direction.

Learn to love the possibilities, and you'll make your way to whatever you seek.

Learn to love no matter what, and you'll discover what a miracle you truly are.

----Author Unknown

How do we really learn to love? Don't we already have that mastered? Isn't the ability to love one of those innate capabilities that every human being is born with? Well, some would say so. Some would say that to love is to live. Some would say that love is actually one of the multitudes of emotions that all humans feel; that it is embedded in our DNA. Others, like me, would simply shrug and say, "I have no idea."

If love is a learned behavior, who do we learn it from? Our parents? Our siblings? Our children? Our friends? From GOD? It is no wonder people get confused about the feelings they have for other people with all these different kinds of love flying around everywhere. I know that the possibilities make my head spin on a daily basis! I would love to have it explained to me. I would love to know why/how it happens - this feeling that can only be described as love. I would love to know how love can bring so much pleasure and yet cause so much pain? I would love to know where the phrase "falling in love" came from. Why is it "falling?" Is it because when you experience it, it feels as though you are physically falling, like from a great height, out of control, with no clue as to when, if, or where you will land?

Must be, because that, to me, is a very familiar sensation. Only for me, instead of "falling," it should be "plummeting."

Then to further complicate things, you can fall in love with your spouse, you can fall in love with your children (I did, the moment they were born), and you can fall in love with your friends (speaking of Platonic love, of course). All very different, very much the same.

I suppose I'm not really looking for answers. I can't imagine anyone out there has the answers to questions this complex. So, because of the depth of knowledge needed to explain away love, the ins; the outs; the whys; the hows; I will just have to leave it to God. When I meet Him someday, perhaps He will explain to me why the ones I love the most are the ones that cause me so much emotional anguish. Perhaps He will explain the reason for all the different kinds of love and how they can all be described the same.

Until that day comes, I will do my best to learn to love in all the ways the author describes at the beginning of this entry - and more, I would imagine.

So, let me begin my education by saying...

...I love you.