"What is YOUR idea of love?"

"What is your idea of love?" A friend of mine asked me this last night. We were talking about the romantic kind of love and I had a ready answer. "Love is a commitment. It's a choice you decide to make everyday." But what is it really you commit to? What is it really that you decide to choose everyday?

My kind of love is the kind of love that just doesn't involve your heart (emotions) but you brain (rationality) as well.

Love is a commitment. It is a commitment to fall in love everyday, to find reasons to when you are not. It is a commitment to love one person and one person alone for a period of time, maybe forever. To commit your time, energy, care and attention to the other person, unconditionally, even on bad days. It is a commitment to stay even when it's so much easier to leave. It is a commitment to love itself, to constantly search for truth about what it is. To know Love, you must know what it is and what it is not. This I think is the heart part.

It's a choice you decide to make everyday. And with that, you consciously make an effort everyday to choose to fulfill the commitments you have made the day you claimed the other person's heart. You choose to become their support system; you at least try to extend your patience and to expand your understanding even when you're all confused up there. But love them enough to choose to rebuke them when they have gone too far, and to help them get back on track. It is a choice to trust that person enough that s/he will do the same when you have gone overboard. Love is knowing that there are other people who will always be better at some things than your lover but choosing to look past those things because your partner's imperfections are exactly what you love about them. It is choosing to love them for who they are and who they are not. Love is accepting the fact that there are things that you cannot change about the person you love but choosing to still love them anyway.. This is the brain part.

Love is knowing that in a relationship, both parties are equally important. It is tending to your partners needs but not forgetting that you yourself have needs too.. It is important to never forget that to love doesn't mean losing yourself in the process of loving another person.. Taking care of the person you love means to take care of yourself too.. Give only what you can and always remember to leave something for yourself.. Never ever neglect yourself because when you do, one day you will end up having nothing more to give..

My kind of love is the kind of love that lasts.. the kind of love you work on.. the kind of love that needs dedication, trust and honesty.. My kind of love is facing giants together and talking about problems rather than just setting them aside.. My kind of love is forgiving but not forgetting.. Not forgetting what have once hurt your or the other person to prevent falling into that same situation again.. Not forgetting the lessons that came with the falling..

My kind of love is cooking pancakes in the morning, for no reason at all.. and maybe, for all the right reasons too.. :)

Ky