Love is ?

I wrote these words a few years ago now, under another guise and during a different stage in my life.
But the words are still relevant and worthy of a Valentines post.
With the world today, Feb 14th 2016 supposedly back in a Cold War, with tensions running high in numerous countries and fighting continuing in others, with politicians more interested in bickering with each other to win votes than actually solving problems today, with new diseases being found and old ones not yet cured, the words "I Love You" should perhaps be spoken more often to more people and we might find peace in areas we never thought possible, and loved ones might not leave us so soon, or at least not with out knowing how we feel about them.

Love Is ?                                                 

The only successful relationship I ever had, was with food. 

And even then I cheated.

February is about love. Albeit the mass market variety.  

St Valentines Day fills me with angst on so many levels. 

Some people find my theory on love quite bizarre, yet I find it even stranger that we must mark love with its own special day. Surely if love is a spontaneous and all encompassing emotion, it should be celebrated on a daily basis, not just by the marking of a particular day to express our feelings for another.

Perhaps it is a reflection of modern life, that we are just too busy to show emotion, take time out of our all too important daily tasks to remind those special in our lives that they are dear and loved to us? Perhaps if people stopped taking selfies, they might have time for others.

What exactly does St Valentines celebrate anyway? 

The secret unrequited love of a couple never met? 

A burning passion one can never achieve, or is it truly the celebration of a couple who have found true and ever lasting love?

I’m just not sure what kind of love I have felt in my life nor wether I’m worthy of the cards I receive. Does more than one card from different people make me a bad person or just lucky? 

Is it bad to send more Valentines cards than I do at Christmas? 

We do not all believe in Christmas but surely we do all believe in love! And to spread the feeling of love is a far better cause.

True love, unrequited love, pure love, never-ending love, unconditional love, undying love, puppy love, familial love, platonic love or a love that transcends time. When did something so simple, become so mind bogglingly complicated?

Some people seem to find love easy, some find it immensely difficult and others like me, find it perplexing.

I once worked as part of a small team. We were like the four Musketeers; just better looking!  

Our quartet consisted of a youthful Mr. Twenty something, two thirty something’s and myself at forty.(remember I wrote this a few years back)

We were a very stereo typical group of chefs. One in four marriages end in divorce and the elder of the two thirty some-things fit that bill.

The younger thirty something had been in one relationship all his life and was happily married, having found his true love early on.

Mr Twenty something, a young radical with spiky un-brushed hair full of “product” , styling mousse and texture putty was a good looking kid who found the game of love easy, yet the saying of the words immensely difficult.

To round out the quartet there was myself. Forty, single and typical of our star sign Aries.

Aries people have life tough. 

We are by birth, lovers and playboys. Read any astrological page and they tell you we are players of the game; lovers who act compulsively. It’s not our fault. The stars simply align themselves every time we pass a person of the opposite sex. 

A cosmic wave fills me, there and then with love!

It is not a game. It’s very serious. For me, love expresses how I feel. Right then! Right there! I can walk down the street and fall in love every ten feet.

It sounds like fun, but you have no idea. 

A simple task of shopping can take hours and I’ll return home with a hundred new phone numbers.

My therapist says this stems, not only from my star sign, but my size. 

I have and always will be a little on the big side. Since childhood I have known the taunts one can receive for being different. I do not necessarily stand out like a sore thumb, more like a pumpkin on a tomato vine. To say it simply, I felt sometimes un-loved as a child. I know what power this simple word can hold.

Saying “I LOVE YOU” , means far more to hear, than it does to say.

Mr Twenty something , even in a relationship with a person for whom he has “feelings”, finds the word difficult to verbalise. 

His is a set of principals and beliefs I respect from an age gone by, whilst Mr Divorcee never wants to hear or say the words again for fear of the financial ramifications.

But to make others feel loved even for a second, is an amazing experience to share. 

As Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote,” Tis better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all”.

Perhaps if the world could relate to these three little words, like I do, we would have far less wars and unrest. 

We all deserve to be loved and to find love, even if for a fleeting moment whilst shopping.

For me, just to hear the words, to read them, to write them or to type them to another, fills my day with joy.

Imagine seven billion people feeling the way I do. 

It would be like the sixties all over again! Would that be so bad?

Happy Valentines Day and may love find you all where ever you are and what ever your situation.