Love, love, love, love, crazy love.

"I'm holding on to love to save my life."


Whoa. That's my new philosophy. 


I'm always coming up with little life philosophies for myself, but this one I can attribute to none other than Shania Twain. I'm finding that a little strange considering some of her other song titles include "Man, I feel like a woman", "Waiter, bring me water", and "I'm not in the mood to say no." Not exactly life altering statements. But, I'm a firm believer in finding inspiration in small/strange/unexpected places. And what do you know? that song came up on my ipod and something about it struck me.


I can't talk about love without talking about God. No es posible. Because you see, we love because he first loved us. Here are a couple of my favorite verses about love from the bible:

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, 

but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, 

and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 John 3:16

Every day I try to show love to the people I, well, love. But it's more than that. As I strive to live my life drawing closer to God, the love he has for me is infectious. It makes me happy, it keeps me grounded, it gives me reason to live, and it makes me want to love others as he loves me. It's hard, not gonna lie. Because I get annoyed and frustrated and selfish and the last thing I want to do is to show love to someone who just made me mad. But that's where the whole "love is patient, love is kind" thing comes in. And I have to remind myself of that. All the time.

And then, there's that I'll-love-you-forever-will-you-marry-me kind of love. And yeah, to say the least, I'm holding onto that. As much as I say Nicholas Sparks is cheesy (he really is) his books make me cry. They're just so...perfect. Nothing stands in the way of the man and woman. They love each other, and that's all that matters (unless he's a soldier and she marries someone else...) But the point is, love conquers all. I was reading this article on this website that's all about relationships, and all the "experts" say that the idea that love conquers all is totally a myth. I was flabberghasted. Is love that doesn't conquer all even love? I don't think so. At least not the forever kind of love that I'm holding onto. I take that definition of love very seriously. It's not something that you throw around right and 
left, and it's not what you're supposed to say to someone 
you're dating. It's the feeling you get somewhere deep inside you when you just...know. You know that anything is possible when you're holding that person's hand. You know that you don't want to live without that person. You know that person is your other half, you're complete and you're truly the best possible version of yourself. And when you find that love, it can and will conquer all. And you believe it with all that's inside of you.

Call me a hopeless romantic. Whatever. That's what I'm holding onto. And holding out for. 

"Love is patient..."