"Nowhere is such beauty to be found on this earth, than that which is seen in the reflection of womanly thought, thinking upon the memory of a past love or the anticipation of a meeting to come.
There has probably been more written upon the topic of 'love' than any other subject one can think of. Therapists provide advice on it, experts pronounce its absence or presence and romantic books never fail to profess its existence by the final page. For my own part, I have loved more than once and believe that there is no absolute in the emotion. I believe that each person we love, we love differently to any other. That is why we love the best when we love someone for who they are.
Love is often a pretend by-product of lust and remains just a word until we bring it meaningful definition. I know it means many different things to many different people. Some can obtain pleasure from the mere holding of hands, the sweetest of smiles or the sharing of souls, whereas others require nothing less than the emotional force of sheer sexual physicality to feel its presence. Without this coup de grace which they call passion, some romantics say they cannot know love at its best.
Perhaps it takes the hurt of a previous experience, the loss of a prior relationship and soul mate or even the advancement of old age which makes physical passion less necessary for one's future happiness. Love is most evident when it is seen in a couple holding hands and enjoying their moment of togetherness. When you can share your secrets and your fears with your partner, that's when you know trust is at its highest. I knew I truly loved, once I was prepared to remove my mask of concealed thought and feelings, the mask I often hid behind whenever I feared a certain outcome; the mask I could not live without until you came along and I felt safe enough to remove it and reveal my total nakedness.
Then there is also the one true love you no longer have in your life; the one you lost to another, the one you surrendered to illness or through tragic accident upon the battlefields of war and death itself. It is often so very hard to come back from such loss, to be the person you once were. It is only when your emotions have freed themselves to express once more the things you want but no longer have, that you might find new love. It is only when you allow your heart to be reopened to the possibility of ever finding love anew, only then, can you find the new you; not the person you once were, but the person you now are." William Forde: June 30th, 2016.