Love

What is love? Scientists have delved deep into this mystery of life. They have found that the melding two chemicals, Oxytocin and Vasopressin, within the brain have been linked to long term bonding. They also say that Serotonin plays a major role and that one in love resembles that of a person with an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Scientists are definitely not romantics. But even in the scientific community love remains a mystery, one rooted deep in our culture far beyond our written history.

So what is love? A mother holding her newborn for the first time. A father, still in his work clothes, playing catch with his son. That fluttering in your chest as you close your eyes for your first kiss. Two grandparents holding hands as they stroll down the street. Love comes in all forms, sexes, and states. It first strikes as a sickness. Lightheaded, butterflies begin their flapping within your gut, there is nothing like a newborn love. Scientists have found the protein NGF, Nerve Growth Hormone, to be at it’s highest levels when couples first fall in love. They have also found that this protein has also been associated with Alzheimer. Never invite a scientist to give a speech at your wedding. As the love ages, and the protein levels out, love changes and resembles more of a comforter. That warm blanket you know will be there when you come in from the blustering wind.

Love can also be elusive. We search our entire life for love or that which we were taught what love is supposed to be. But love comes to those that love. Like a piggy bank, the more you put into it the more you will get out. Love is also the sun that makes our souls grow. Without love, our branches droop, our being wilts, and we become dead inside. While love warms our soul, we need to toil the land, or relationships, in which it’s roots grow. One can’t just accept love and expect a garden to grow. We must get down, muddy our knees, and not be afraid to get dirt under our fingernails.

For love to last in this garden, one must use some important tools. One is sacrifice. We must be prepared to pull up the weeds that make the “I” for fertile soil that makes the “Us”. Now there is no way to pull out every single weed in this enormous garden and a healthy sense of the individual is a necessity in every relationship, but if the garden gets too overgrown with these weeds, the fruit will never be seen to have a chance to be plucked.

The rays of love is not enough to keep our garden alive. It is our job to keep the garden vibrant with the water of communication, trust, and compassion. Communication will clean the words left unsaid and the superfluous disagreements that linger far too long, Trust will the strengthen the roots even when you are apart, and Compassion will help you feel the weight of your words and the impact they create before the stems snap and break.

Make no mistake creating and maintaining this garden isn’t easy and the work will last your entire life. But with the right tools, the sustenance within will be all that you will need, want, and crave. So work hard, nurture your garden, and most importantly enjoy the fruits of your labor.