There's a song from the musical "Oliver!" called "Where is Love?" I've sung this song since I was in about seventh grade or so.
Hoping that link works!
This pretty much sums up how I feel about this subject. I could make an endless parade of the "potentials" who've come through my life. Who really, when all was said and done, had no potential whatsoever.
Looking at love from a matured stance, (at least age wise), I realize it's never what you think it is when you're young. It's less. And it's so much more. It's not about being jealous, arrogant, selfish, rude, inconsiderate, impatient...but it is about sharing-your life, your ideas, thoughts, hopes, dreams, disappointments-and, it's about a pair of arms there to hold you at the end of long day when you walk in to your home, look around, and realize that this is where you belong...because home is wherever your heart rests. You understand that your heart can rest here, because it is safe. Wanted. Even treasured.
It's not the other person's attractiveness, it's their openness to being vulnerable to you that draws you. The amazing thing is this ends up making them more attractive to you, because of shared bonds, memories, both happy and sad, and a lifetime of coming to understand who that person is as an individual, and who the two of you are together as a couple.
If you have this, cling to it. Build it. Savor it. Protect it. If you don't...hold out for it, because this is what that ache is inside your heart. That deep down emptiness you feel that you won't admit you have most of the time, even to yourself. It's time to deal with this once you've come to terms with God's place in your life, the plan for your life that's unfolding even when you don't realize it, and once you can finally gauge the scope of the path you're traveling. This, for a lot of us, is what's missing. The equation is simple. You can absolutely go through life by yourself. People prove this on a daily basis. But we humans, well, we're social creatures. We need that interaction, thrive on it, truth be told. We enjoy the closeness and comfort that come from just knowing we have merit in someone else's eyes. not because of anything we've done but because they choose, daily, to love us.
Believe me, when I tell you "IT" will creep up behind and will capture your heart, before you realise it's happening. (Leastwise I KEEP hoping it will. And I'm as old as dirt, maybe older.) :-|
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