Monday 10 March 2014

What Is Love Anyway?

Trying to capture love in words… 

Some task, hey?  As a “Romance” writer that’s what I feel I do, or try to do, and not just “romantic love” but all shades of love. 

Love is… complex, beautiful, devastating, amazing, frustrating, crazy, scary, erotic, sensual, tender. It can take you to the moon and back, or make you hide under the duvet.

Love is… a verb, a noun, an adjective -  to love and be loved, a loving touch, the love of your life, endless love, enduring love, unrequited love. 

Did you know the Greeks have at least 4 words for love? Spiritual love, passionate love, mental love (like friendship) and affectionate love (family). So how do you try and capture all that and every nuance thereafter? Romantic love, friendship, family love – those strong bonds, a Mother’s love -that can be fierce and protective like a tiger.

And where there is love and passion, there will also be grief and pain and loss. Therein lies the story telling. Powerful emotions that touch us all, how we act and react to them, they are part of life’s journey. For what is a life without love? “Life without love, is no life at all” Leonardo da Vinci. Even the most unromantic souls amongst us are touched by love, they might just recognise or express it differently. 

It’s our unique, individual experiences of love that make it so intriguing, which means there are so many stories to tell, to create. I’m sure my husband sees love in a very different way from me and that’s okay, we are all different. We see the world in different ways, and so there are endless stories, variations, emotions. Yet in the end we are all human, we can recognize and empathise with these feelings too.  

And so, here I am, trying to capture love in words.

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