Publication core presents Love
Written by DokMai

There is so much to consider when you are thinking of a lasting loving
relationship.  You can admire someone without ever feeling devoted or
committed to him or her.  Looks may attract, but as people get older,
their looks aren't as polished, so where does that type of love go?  Well,
they seem strong until the wrinkles and the extra tires and chins set in.

I would like to get into the idea of considering maturity when it comes
to love.  I've seen 40-year-old men who are more immature than 20-year-old
men.  Not to sound too much like a cliche, but  "age is only a number."  I
am saying that maturity of both parties involved will be a big indication
on success or failure.  Not just mature in life experiences, but also the
ability to draw from wisdom that they received from life, and maturity in
knowing how to communicate your feelings and emotions without pointing
fingers and drawing out guilty parties. Although, one issue to consider is
that there is the 'judgement' center in your brain and it doesn't
physically developed until one is at least eighteen. Thus, give yourself
plenty of time to really know what choices you have in love and life
before  making your decision.

You must have similar tastes and values.  After a while the 70's 'funky'
music does get on your nerves if you prefer classical music. As you grow
older, when retirement comes along and there are no children or
distractions,  you will find yourself looking across the empty house and 
wondering who in the world is living with you.  Where is that friend that
you need?  Where are the similarities?

To me, sex is empty and unfulfilling.  If it was fulfilling, why do people
need it repeatedly?  The very nature of love needs and wants for more
than just some good looking  hunk or hunkette on the street.  Making love
is a sharing of souls, a complete bonding of two people who are in love
with each other and admire each other -- that is what I have always felt
sex  was about. I'd rather make love than have sex any day.  Animals have
sex.   People make love.

Who is my love.. Who is my love?.. My love is patient and considerate.
He's loving and giving. He comforts me in my fears and he kisses away my
tears.  Our love is so unexpected. I was not looking but I found a
treasure so rare.   I found that the treasure was inside of myself that I
did not know had existed. I felt so beautiful because I knew I had to be,
to receive a love like this. I do feel the fears of losing a love this
rare. I know the fears are natural because to receive something greater
and more limitless than I had ever imagined, to try to accept that it may
fade away or drift away would  not only crush my heart but it would injure
his as well. But to live in my fear, I embrace a disappointment that may
never occur.

Love is not the fear of being what you really are deep inside; but rather
the  total surrendering of your entire being to another being with
complete mutual acceptance.  That is the nature of my love.   It is not
only inside one wonderful gentleman, it is also inside me.  My love is not
only him, but it is also me. Love isn't something I could even hope to
search for and find.  It is something that happens without preparation or
expectation. Love can be as unexpected as the first smile from a baby that
you cradle in your arms and can reach into the deepest depths of your soul
and surprise you how deep those depths have always been. Perhaps for once
in my life, I have given myself the permission to be happy about the
person I see in the mirror and the person I live with everyday --  me. The
strength of this love has even started to make the scars that I thought
would never disappear diminish right before my eyes.
 
I may be wistful on occasions. So be it!   I'm in love. The identity of
my love is within a man and the songs he has composed in my soul. I tend
to think we perhaps discount ourselves because in order to experience the
beauty of love we must be loveable and be loving.

Who is my love -- my love is him and he is me. Two people intertwined so
deeply that  sometimes we cannot see where one stops.. and where the
other begins.

**END**