Love

In my life, I've come to realize a few things about the L word.

Careful, dears, no need to get hot and bothered. I don't mean Lesbian.
I mean Love.

It's come to my attention that there are countless forms of love. Love is omnipresent. It's everywhere. "Love is a many splendored thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all you need is love."
You know the rest.

What you don't know, or you just haven't chosen to acknowledge, is that love surrounds us in every square inch of sunshine, every square inch of rain, every square inch of passion, pride, joy, sorrow, stagnation.
We were created out of love. We die for love.
We live to love.

Sometimes you can't control the thing you fall in love with. Be it animal, mineral, vegetable, over-the-top Emmy-winning TV programs about show choirs, Justin Bieber or even a Western form of relaxation meditation turned worldwide fitness phenomenon, love comes in all sorts of ways, and from all sorts of places.

Woody Allen, in response to a question to the tune of "Why are you in a relationship with your 21 year old stepdaughter?" once said, "The heart wants what the heart wants."

Now this may be a terrible excuse to practice acts of rampant incestuous promiscuity, and should never, in my opinion, be used as an excuse for any sort of behavior in general, but as sad and sick as it is, there is truth to that statement.

I don't want to get into deep-seated controversy here, that's not my intention.
My intentions are purely surface level.

I've come to realize this in my own life.

For example. As hard as I fought against the urges, I too succumbed viciously to the glitz and glamour of GaGa songs, Justin Bieber and, dare I say it, have even mindlessly took part in a few episodes of a horribly embarrassing tv show which shall remain nameless.

(And no, to all of those who know me, it's not Buffy. There's no shame in wanting more of The Buffster. This is far, far, far worse, and therefore, strictly unmentionable.)

It's just true.
Sometimes, your heart wants things, and you desire things you originally thought strange or humiliating, unusual and therefore unacceptable.
And then once you realize that you can't help yourself, and you roll with the punches, catch on to the next big phenomenon, you find out why it was all along that you loved inexplicable things in inexplicable ways.

I have this theory that God is setting us all up for one, huge, eye-opening experience. There's no telling how long this experience will last. It could take moments, it could take years.

But I believe He drops us hints, all along the pathways and hillsides of life, and as we collect them and lay them idly without a second thought in our baskets, we slowly begin to connect the dots.
And then, once all the dots are connected..... Epiphany.

We're someday finally going to find out just why it is we all love a good musical number done in costume and choreograph.
We're going to find out just why the undeniable need for social networking controls our lives.
We're going to find out why we've always had undeniable cravings for orange juice with our slices of pizza.
I'm someday going to find out why it is I love the smell of gasoline.
I've already found out why it is that I've always, always, had an unexplained affection for learning how to surf.... And why I've always loved people, in all their flawed, inspiring, tragic wonder.

Some people are going to find out why they've always found others who wear glasses incredibly sexy.
Some are going to find out exactly why they've always hated tube socks.

God's got a great sense of humor that way.
So, in essence, the statement, "the heart wants what the heart wants" is true. Because in my heart, I want things that I don't understand. I don't know where they've come from, where they are now, where they're going to take me in my life, but I know I want them. I know my heart wants them, completely seperate from my brain, from me.
And someday, after I've collected all the breadcrumbs, God's going to bake me a loaf so fine, and so heart-fulfilling that I'm just going to want to shout it's praises from the rooftops.
No longer being afraid if anyone else overhears.

I can't wait for my eyes to be opened.


L. O. V. E.

Love.