On Love...

The past couple of days have been a series of adventures and I can safely say that I have lived… I have after a really long time attempted the craziest feats that only dare devils and the terminally ill are privileged to do. I guess, to live life, you must face your own mortality… from jet sailing, water skiing to archery, whoa! What an adventure!

I have also realised (as if!) that swimming is a required survival skill after the panic that I felt yesterday when I was immersed in water, life Jacket and all! How hilarious! I have a fear of drowning; maybe I might have died at sea in one of my previous lives. I have now added swimming lessons to my 2010 resolutions; it’s not even an option.

Today, my body hurts, feels like I have been run over by a truck and I still say, it was worth it! Next week am doing the Gorge slide or Bunji jump! Need I say more?? I have faced mortality and realise now, more than ever that, when I get the choice to sit it out or dance. I will dance.

Yesterday, I was watching a film whose title I can’t remember because I caught it off chance and it had already run half way, anyway, it’s a story about young love and a father who believes in the concept that you are too young to love. He tries to keep his daughter and her boyfriend apart but it does not work and when the family travel out of town, the boy follows them. In a brief scene between the boy and the girl’s father, the boy says to the girl’s father that, ‘love is not a feeling, it’s an ability…’

I have no way of knowing who the script writer for this film is, but I know for sure that this is one of the most profound definitions of love that I have heard in this lifetime…

How many of us have the ability to love? To really love someone or themselves unconditionally? I have been musing over this definition for a while and the words keep ringing in my ear. I mean, we’ve all been in a place where we have told someone we love them and when they ask how we know, we affirm by saying, its how we feel. BUT is that really how we know? Through feelings? Emotions!? Or is it because we are able to? Feelings are fleeting and thus cannot be the cornerstone for measuring the meaning or depth of love (I think).

Ability on the other hand simply means the skill or capacity to do something well… Love is the ability to care, to understand, to tolerate, to accept, to protect, to encourage whilst embracing your own and the next person’s inadequacies…

This definition of love strikes a cord with me and I know that I have fallen short of love’s true definition. My goal from now on, is to find that capacity within me to love, in love’s own fashion. When you gain an ability to do something, you will always have it regardless, nothing can take it away. So, if you love someone, you probably will always posses that ability, but like any other skill, it can only be sustained through regular practice.

I am now harnessing the capacity to love myself more, and taking a chance on life, learning to put myself first; that way, I too can love others. I am fortunate to be blessed with so much love in my life but many a time have failed to see it for what it is. I have continued to focus on the past and future as opposed to the now. I have plenty of love right now and I am recieving it with gratitude.

Starting this very minute, I am on an adventure called life, happy and loving it and if I get the chance to sit it out or dance. I will dance! When I acquire the ability to love someone, I will do just that!