Love is...

This is something I wrote over a year ago...

Love is not a fairy tale, for fairy tales are far to simple and pretty. Oh yes I want the fairy tale, its a desire of my small beating heart. But as I grow and stumble my way through life I'm learning with every step...and fall, that love is much more complicated than a simple little fairy tale.

Love is deep. Love is messy. Love is blinding. Love is beautiful. Love is hurt. Love is grace. Love is tears. Love is easy. Love is difficult. Love is not one, two or even three dimensional, its much more than that.

Love is love. There isn't a single word to define love.

Have I loved? Oh yes, I've loved. I've felt, given, seen, received, and been stripped of love. I've experienced love. How? The list could go on forever and I know there will be more love to come on my journey. But a peak into the window of my heart and the love I've experienced...

A mother's love. This love is a multi dimensional love. Its patient, unconditional, sacrificial, supportive, and more. All of this I've received from the heart, hands, and words of my mother. Most recently I've seen this love reflected in my sister and the love for her children. To have watched her grow, learn, fight, laugh and fall through the years and now shine like a start as a mother. I've experienced love by watching her with her precious children.

A friend's love. This love stretches time and distance for those few special people that are given to us for more than a season, but for a lifetime. This love is felt over the phone, even after not speaking or seeing one another for months at a time, yet it feels just like yesterday. A supportive and encouraging love through both laughter and tears.

An intimate love. I walked in those doors for a time. It was adventurous, uplifting, butterflies in my tummy and moments that were literally breath taking. A feeling where all you want to do is give and serve that person with all you have. However, sometimes those feelings aren't matched and as the songwriter puts it "your heart feels like paper, a Valentine that's been torn in to pieces." I've heard it said you can fall in love with the wrong person, so I made that mistake. However, I walked away knowing I loved deep and wholly, beyond what I imagined could exist. Now I find myself healing, learning and growing so I can be all I am now and more for the day I can love again.

An unmatchable love. There is a love that has never, ever failed me. The love of my Abba, my God. I can't even begin to grasp His furious love. The deep and powerful love of a mother, friend and lover are just fractions of glimmers of His unimaginable love. His love is what keeps you breathing, what gives you the strength and soul to love...He is love. Love doesn't exist without Him. Feeling, which is only part of love, doesn't exist without Him. How? How can one live this life without opening their heart up to His love. I couldn't.

LOVE...