LOVE is...

Hi, y’all…how are ya?  I’m Kayce Lassiter and I’m thrilled to be here!

Marie Patrick – Thank you, sweetie, for that wonderful intro.  You made me feel so welcome and I’m soooo excited about working with you all here on HEAT.  But I gotta say, I read that lovely intro and after wallowing in the warm welcome a few minutes, panic set in when I thought...Holy Cow, what am I gonna write about?  Then I spent an agonizing couple of days waiting for inspiration to strike.  The damn thing musta been hit by a bus before it ever got into my neighborhood because that stinking inspiration just never showed up.  Now what?  Argh!  Agony!  So I read that intro again and decided if I was to write about life, love, and laughter, then maybe I should pick one and have a clear image in my head of exactly what it is.  Should I pick life?  Or maybe love?  Or maybe laughter?  Which one is the most important?  Well, since we are talking about romance here and the proverbial happily ever after ending, I chose LOVE .  So for a clear definition of LOVE, I went…where else?...the internet.  Because we all know they can’t put anything on the internet that ain’t true.  Right? 

Well, what I found is that LOVE seems to be so many things to so many people, and rarely is it the same for all.  Webster’s Dictionary defines LOVE as:   

Strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties; affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests; warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion; unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another. 

Really?  That's it?  Seems to fall a bit short to me.  Kind of sounds like a Labrador I once had, except there’s no mention of a cold nose.  Does it fall short for you?  Okay, I needed more…this can’t be the ever-elusive LOVE that everyone chases, everyone dreams about, everyone craves, even sometimes kills for.  I ask you, would you kill for a “strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties”?  I didn’t think so!

So I started researching love quotes and that’s when I really started getting a very different picture of what love really is.  Here are some of my favorite love quotes, and, please, I tried to do my best to find a source for every quote.  But some I just couldn’t find.  So if you recognize something and feel I have attributed it incorrectly, please feel free to let me know and forgive me.  After all, it is the internet and the source of all things perfect.  J

What LOVE is...

"Love is like a Rubix Cube, there are countless numbers of wrong twists and turns, but when you get it right, it looks perfect no matter what way you look at it."

~ Brian Cramer

Ever been there?  You wake up each morning wearing rose colored glasses.  Everything is perfect and always will be.  You’re going to live…wait for it…Happily Ever After.  J  (Had to!)  Well, there’s more. 

"Love is being stupid together."

~ Paul Valery  

Uh…yeaaah, who hasn’t been there?  He says, “Let’s have sex in the elevator, no one will see us.”  “Uhhhhh…ok.”  DUH!  Now we’re talking something to kill for! 

“Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your heart or burn down your house you can never tell.”

~Joan Crawford

“Love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke.”

~Lynda Barry 

“You know it’s love when you want to keep holding hands even after you’re sweaty.”

~unknown to me

"Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice. Instead of vowing to honor and obey, maybe we should swear to aid and abet. That would mean that security is out of the question. The words "make" and "stay" become inappropriate. My love for you has no strings attached. I love you for free."

~ Tom Robbins 

Now I think we’re getting a little closer.  LOVE is a fire, it’s warm; it’s an outlaw that follows no rules, has no strings; it’s shared stupidity; it’s willingly stepping into an explosion; it looks perfect from all angles. That’s more like the LOVE we all know and yearn for, isn’t it?   The whole “sweaty” thing is creeping me out a little bit, but ok…I get it.  J 

So, does LOVE actually do anything?  What does it make us feel when we find it?  What does it do to us?  And the age old question…how long does it last? 

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”

~Dr. Seuss

“Trying to forget someone you love is like trying to remember someone you never met.”

~unknown to me

“For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.”

             ~Judy Garland

“A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.”

~Joseph Joubert

“You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.”

~Henry Drummond 

“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.”

~Zora Neale Hurston

So, as it turns out, LOVE is better than dreams, unforgettable, generous, soul-touching, life-building…and someone who has never felt their soul claw its way out of that dark place has never loved.  Woo Hoo, now they’re talkin’ my language…but I’m thinking I still need more before I’m willing to kill for it…gimme more!

LOVE is fun…

 “A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love.”

~Friedrich Nietzsche  

“Before I met my husband, I'd never fallen in love. I'd stepped in it a few times.”

~Rita Rudner 

Ouch!  Sometimes both of these can even happen on the same night, or even with the same person!  Of course, I’m not sayin’ it’s ever happened to me that way (wink) …I’m just sayin’…

“An archeologist is the best husband any woman can have; the older she gets, the more interested he is in her.” 

~Agatha Christie

“A man is already halfway in love with any woman who listens to him.”

~Brendan Francis 

They probably should have added a sandwich somewhere in that last quote.  J

 “All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt!”

~Charles M. Schulz

“I love you like a fat kid loves cake.”

~unknown to me

Okay, I can’t stop giggling every time I read that one.  I know it’s politically incorrect and extremely immature.  What’s your point?  My very existence is politically incorrect and who wants to be mature?  We’re talking love here…roll with it.  J

“Love is the answer, but while you are waiting for the answer bumpin’ uglies raises some pretty good questions.”

~unknown to me 

“One day your prince will come.  Mine just took a wrong turn, got lost and is too stubborn to ask for directions.”

~Kinley MacGregor 

I’m thinkin’ the lost prince too stubborn to ask for directions thing might explain a lot in my life…that’s the story I’m going with!  J  Maybe it’s time to look for an archaeologist, and I don’t even want to think about what questions “bumpin’ uglies” might raise! 

Here is where I took a bit of a left-turn and asked my son what he thought love was and he gave me a couple of quotes that he attributes to his father…

“Love is like a fart.  It makes you feel better, but pisses everyone else off.” 

“Love is a condition, not an emotion.  An emotion would be how you feel about her big breasts.”

Okay, I think we can all see why that relationship didn’t last forever.  LOL  So much for that avenue, let’s explore some more internet quotes.  J 

LOVE is fierce…

“Sometimes I wonder if love is worth fighting for, but then I remember your face and I’m ready for war.”

~Helen Rowland 

LOVE is blind…

“You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.”

~Sam Keen 

LOVE is confusing…

“I don’t miss him, I miss who I thought he was.”

~unknown to me 

 “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.”

~Maya Angelou 

Thank you to my niece for giving me that last quote at a time when the old gal really needed it.  I love you, B-girl!  J 

LOVE is painful…

“The hottest love has the coldest end.”

~Socrates 

“True love burns the brightest, but the brightest flames leave the deepest scars.”

~Brandi Snyder 

The pain of broken LOVE can be healed…

“The wounds of love can only be healed by the one who made them.”

~ Publilius Syrus 

“Time heals all wounds.”

~unknown to me 

There is life after LOVE…

 “Even if he doesn't like me tomorrow, I knew he loved me yesterday.”

~unknown to me 

“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

~Dr. Seuss 

“I could have missed the pain but I'd a had to miss the dance.”

~Garth Brooks 

“Sometimes the memories are worth the pain.”

~unknown to me 

“Every love gone wrong is one step closer to your own true love.”

~unknown to me 

“Never long for anyone from the past. There is a reason why they never made it to your future.”

~unknown to me 

LOVE  changes us forever…

“What we have once enjoyed we can never lose.  All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.”

~Helen Keller 

Well, let’s see if we have a better idea now of what love is.  Here’s what I think we’ve got… 

LOVE is a fire, it’s warm; it’s an outlaw that follows no rules, has no strings; it’s shared stupidity; it’s willingly stepping into an explosion; it looks perfect from all angles.  LOVE is better than dreams, unforgettable, generous, soul-touching, life-building.  LOVE is fun, it is fierce, it is blind, it is confusing, it is painful, it is healing.  LOVE can destroy us, it can save us, but it always changes us forever. 

Whaddayathink?  Ready to kill for it?  Well, I am…at least, in the writer’s sense, anyway.  My prayer is that every story I write will help the reader experience this version of LOVE and not the Labrador version.  May I never fall short!

 

This is my story and I’m stickin’ to it…hold on tight now, cuz we’re gonna go real, real fast. 

Love ya!
 

Kayce