On Love

I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the philosophy of love as of late. The different kinds, the different reasons. Love, as you can imagine, comes up a lot during therapy. Not only when I’m providing the therapy, but also when I’m receiving it.

Love is beautiful. But love can also be twisted. And disturbed. Used and leveraged. None of these, of course, are true love.

In the English language we have one word for love. That four letter word most are afraid to say out loud. But in other languages there are many words for love. For instance, the Greek language has eight words for love, which take on different meanings depending on who you are loving and what kind of love it is.

As I study and read about the subject of love, lots of quotes about love seem to float into my life. I’d like to share two of my favorites. Hopefully they will resonate with you as much as they have with me.

The first one is:

“The pursuit of love involves feelings of duty and responsibility, as well as sacrifice, hard work, resilience, patience, forgiveness and understanding.” – Nick Cave via The Red Hand Files¹

Eight parts of love, all equal in importance.

Duty. Responsibility. Sacrifice. Hard Work. Resilience. Patience. Forgiveness. Understanding.

I might add Acceptance, but one could argue Forgiveness and Understanding pull some of the Acceptance weight.

The second quote on love comes from a surprising source:

“There is no love without sin. For love is best measured in what we forgive.” – Kurt Wagner²

If you’ve ever loved you know the following to be true. You have sinned and you’ve been sinned against. And, you’ve also forgiven and have been forgiven. If you and your loved ones are able to do this, time and time again, love will be in abundance.

Photo by Jamez Picard