“I remember understanding what love really was.”

I was just like a kid at a candy store a couple days ago at the library.  With a skip in my step and an eager smile on my face, I was scooping up loads of books. I’m finally out of college and able to read the books that I want to read, and this realization excites me a great deal.  I’m a geek, I know, and I’m proud of it. Haha.  But anyways…I’m currently reading a book called Purity by Jackson Pearce.  I highly recommend this book.  It is quite comical and fun, a great read about a girl who lost her mother to cancer and the awkward father-daughter relationship that ensues afterward. 

I consider myself to be kind of an odd/unique reader.  Instead of flying through books, I tend to go very slowly, intrigued by certain words and trying to discover new quotes or ideas for my own writing.  For me reading a book isn’t for remembering all of the details about all of the characters or even the story itself; it’s about finding something meaningful, beautiful, or mind-altering that I can use for my own writing and/or thinking. 

There was one particular quote in Purity that I found very meaningful and true.  Since I’m so obsessed with love, it’s no surprise that the quote is about that.

“I remember understanding what love really was.  It didn’t hurt; it didn’t ignore your prayers.  Love tried to make you happy, even if it was useless.  Love would do anything to make you happy” (Pearce 109).

I know I’ve talked about love many, many times before, but it’s hard not to talk about it.  Love is what makes the world such a beautiful place, what makes the world even exist.  The world wouldn’t exist without love.  It’s a basic part of human nature; we were made from love (from our parents and God), and we need to love in order to nurture the human race’s future. 

What I find most striking about this quote from Purity is the part about love doing anything to make you happy, even if that happiness is unattainable.  When we’re sad, lonely, or lose a loved one, love will do anything to ease the pain.  This is so amazing…that sadness, loneliness, and loss can actually be turned into something beautiful when love is involved.  I’ve actually witnessed this with the death of one of my brother’s best friends, Mike.  Though Mike’s death was heartbreaking--especially since he was so young, had recently gotten married, and was such a great young man—his funeral brought his family and friends closer together, sharing the loving, happy memories that they’d experienced with him.  This loss became something beautiful through the power of love.  This is what’s so amazingly powerful about love: it turns anything—even the most painful feeling or experience—into something beautiful and healing.

Some may roll their eyes and call me a “hopeless romantic,” and that’s okay because that’s what I am…a hopeless romantic and an eternal optimist who believes that love will make the world go round, will make the world a better place, and will endure.  Forever.