AMOUR
In the Mood for Love
Little wonder why the genre writing wheel landed on Romance when it comes to my style of story creation. I’d like to say that I chose this path, truthfully it chose me. I was destined to write about love because it surrounds me. I see it in everything, first and foremost from God, who loved me before I even knew what the word meant.
As a child my parents showered affection upon me, a firsthand accounting of what my future held when it comes to this particular category. Later, when I reached adult hood and began my own family. I understood everything the word love entailed.
It became more than a catch phrase, a simple word to me. I discovered that it was linked to emotions, and is very much an action word. I discovered that it has less to do with physical and sometimes unrelated to romantical involvement but more so expression.
Love is a powerful force. Just four small words not minimized by size or lessened in its value, that can pack a wallop and create feelings, because we all know the definition means an intense feeling of deep affection. How easily some people dispose of the word, reducing it to a meaningless category.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7New International Version (NIV) states:
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t include the four types of love: Eros, better defined as romantic love because it is of a sexual nature, then there is storge, a familiar love such as that between parent and their offspring. Agape, which is a universal love, which covers a vast variety. And philia, which is derived from the modern word Philadelphia, or brotherly love.
For some it is only a means to an end, no strings attached kind of deal that they toss out like garbage once they’ve completed the transaction. It isn’t a word to be used loosely, like spare change being tossed in a cupholder or scrape jar. For others, it is a life long relationship forged by way of trials and tribulations. A solid foundation that will withstand almost anything.
There are
In the news that’s making it’s rounds across social media and other outlets, we learned of the marriage engagement of Prince Harry and actress Meghan Markle. I am over the moon excited for them and a bit of an opportunist because I’m taking liberties to use them as the perfect example of what love is.
Who doesn’t like a good fairytale romance every once and a while. However, this is more than fantasy, but love amplified and exemplified at it’s greatest level. Firstly, we know that one of them is not linked to royalty, though neither has blue blood flowing through their veins, despite the qualifications to be deemed aristocratic. Most importantly, of the two, only one has an interracial background.
Nevertheless, this has not stood in the way of two people expressing the end game of falling in love by getting married as the happy ending of the story. I admire the fact they chose to rise above negative comments fueled by bigotry and ignorance to explore a life together despite the odds.
This is what love is. It is overcoming naysayers, having nothing to prove to anyone but yourself that anything is possible. I embrace their commitment and anyone else who can and will justify the word, and live their life as if nothing else matters.
Perhaps I am a bit of a romantic at heart. It’s not a bad thing to believe in love. We were created for the purpose of love worship. To honor and conform. In case you are wondering where these words come from when couples speak their vows to each other. It comes from God. The ultimate originator of the word. “God So Loved The World That He Gave His Only Begotten Son.”
Love is a commitment, an overcomer of many things, and a sacrifice of everything.
