"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are.
Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."
::St. Augustine
Since 2000, I unknowingly embarked on a quest to understand love. This ultimately started with Love Himself, but it took circumstances in my life to make it all the more clear. At this point in my life, the desire to love and to be marked by my love has never been more prominent—however, it is everything else around love that has brought confusion, complication and its own test of heartache.
I thought I had it all once upon a time. I also thought I grasped it all too. I was "in love" and grew out of it, only to find it again. And upon finding it again, it was lost along with many other things. All of it can make one tired of the process and the journey. But there is a longing in me to have this story because it is my story. It was made me who I am and shaped who I will forever be.
I realized a few years ago that even the best intentions and the most cherished hopes and dreams can still be dashed to the ground in one fell swoop. Living by "love is all you need" from the most humanistic perspective will still leave you longing for more. But when we reorient the compass of our life that "Love is all we need", then it's from that direction we march. Life will still be just as chaotic, messy and confusing, but we will see the goodness of God for us in the midst of it all.
For now, I am in love with love and Love Himself, as C.S. Lewis so eloquently put it (The Great Divorce). That's where it all started back in 2000 and that is where I have rooted myself, ever desiring that He and I are one tree, one branch, one vine.
Purchase the first World Through Their Eyes which is a book of photos taken by Russian children.
