All We Need Is Love

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All We Need Is Love

Last week, I was inspired to write about love, as we were just about to celebrate the love between two dear friends. And boy, what a celebration it was. 

I am still on cloud nine. The love we all felt this past weekend made me not want to leave the topic. I want to stay right here. Imbued, embalmed, and entranced by the sharing of love, hope, and happiness. 

And besides that, what other topic is there? 

If there is something we need more than ever, it is love. We should stop looking. The answer to almost any question is love. 

Love is contagious. The more we love we give, the more love we receive. And unlike some other resources, it’s infinite. There is no limit. You can’t spend too much love. Try it, and you’ll find you will be richer than you have ever been. 

Love is also, like most feelings, a verb. It’s an act. It’s a choice. It’s a decision. We can decide to love more. Or, we can decide to love less. Or, not at all. And if we don’t choose love, what does that say about us? 

I know it is not easy. If it was, we wouldn’t be surrounded by so many problems, so much loneliness, so much despair. But I feel humanity is nearing a crossroads; one where we can choose between a more loving and kind world. Or…one that I don’t want to name. 

The task at hand is to reawaken our capacity for love so that we can extinguish our tendency for hate. 

So, I spent this week trying to sustain, bottle up, and keep this “love is in the air” feeling. Life will throw us curveballs. It always does. It did so for me just this week when I unexpectedly had to bid farewell to my good friend and mentor, Shelly Lavin. But despite the fact that I will miss him dearly, my feelings are still about love and gratitude for the examples he set and the generosity he always personified. 

As I was contemplating love, I was scanning through my archives for the quotes and ideas around love that have inspired me for a long time. I am sharing some of my favorites here hoping that they might inspire some of you. If you have your own sources, PLEASE share them with me. Sharing is an aspect of love, as well.

I will start with my favorite line from Greg’s vows to Jen during the ceremony (which, in turn, was inspired by a poem by Nizar Qubbani). It is so profoundly beautiful: 

...and I hope that you give our children your enchanting smile, your infectious giggle, and your unbelievable sleeping ability, so that even when we’re gone the world will find in them all the reasons why I love you. 
 
I found love in these lines from the wonderful song “Murder in the City” by the Avett Brothers

Make sure my sister knows I loved her
Make sure my mother knows the same
Always remember there was nothing worth sharing
Like the love that let us share our name
 
I also found love in the beginning scene from the movie Love Actually. I watch it often, as I find it so inspiring. If you haven't seen it for a while, you can click on this link and watch it. Or, read what Hugh Grant says below. It's true and it provides an important juxtaposition to all the negative news of hate that seems to surround us. But, as he says, if we look hard enough there is love....all around. 

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion is starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling love, actually … is all around.” 

And here are some others...

“Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get–only with what you are expecting to give–which is everything."
–Katharine Hepburn

“Where there is love, there is life."
–Mahatma Gandhi

"I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you."

Roy Croft

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

Dr. Seuss

I will try to keep this feeling going for as long as possible. Life is better when my soul is fully occupied by love. It's like a shield against bad things that happens to all of us. It's our human miracle drug that helps us against just about anything. And it's free. And we are all pharmacies and doctors insofar as we can prescribe as much of it as we can muster and give it to anyone, anytime, all the time. 

All we need is love. Indeed so!