What Is Love?

The more intimately we get to know someone, the more clearly we see their shortcomings.

This is why some relationships fail. It's why family members can be abandoned, and why some friendships don't last.

We might think we love or respect someone, until we see the way they behave when they are under pressure - when they encounter financial difficulty, when they are exhausted, when they are too broken to love us back.

Here's the thing: love is not what most of us imagine it is.

Love is not a state that we helplessly fall in and out of.

Love is a verb. It's something we purposefully do.

To love someone is to be patient and compassionate - it's to make a conscious choice to care for them, even when they don't have the ability or desire to care for us.

To love someone is extremely difficult, and can involve great pain and sacrifice.

This is why most people go through life without really loving or being loved.

If we are blessed to be loved, let's remember how lucky we are.

And let's be thankful that for whatever time we have left, we have the option of striving to love others.