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| A tornado with hearts and the words "I love": image by Ian Langtree (my soul mate!) |
Love is like a tornado.
It is unpredictable and intense. It drops where it will and it tears things up. I cannot make it obey me, I cannot demand that it is tender with the people I care about.
Love is not a tornado.
It does not cause destruction most of the time. Instead, it creates. It connects me to meaning, to the deeper strength and substance inside myself. Because of the variety of people I love, because of my desire to feel close to them, I stir myself up inside to uncover hidden possibilities of understanding or empathy. Where I find none I am often able to plant a seed and grow something wonderful.
Love is like a tornado.
When people I love hurt, it tears me up. It is unstoppable and natural and entirely horrible to hurt the way it can hurt. It is unfair. It is violent.
Love is not a tornado.
I love and I love and I love. My sons. My grandchildren. My mom. My sisters. My brothers. My friends. My soul mate. My nieces. My daughters-in-law. My step-daughters. I love and I love and I love.
It makes me more. It makes me bigger than myself. I cannot experience so much of the world in so many different ways without those I love living life and sharing what it is with me. They share, I share, we consider each other's ideas and observations, we grow and gain because of it.
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air most often quantified by the amount of destruction it leaves behind. Love can be like that.
But love is not that.
Love is a connection that allows for freedom. That would fight for that freedom. While, simultaneously, fighting for changes when who you love - yourself or the other - would be better with change. Better for you? For them? This is the tough stuff love signals us to think about. There is so much involved it can feel like a tornado.
But love is not merely destructive and dangerous when it is active. Also, it is soft and sweet, it is the breath of a baby sleeping soundly in your arms; it is strong and supportive, it is the sister who shows up with an industrial air conditioner when you can no longer take the heat; it is honest and kind, it is the mother who tells you to do the dishes with your brother, not for him, because though it takes longer and seems like a skill your brother will never have, you are wrong and he is worth the time it takes both of you to learn that.
I love and I love and I love. My sons. My grandchildren. My mom. My sisters. My brothers. My friends. My soul mate. My nieces. My daughters-in-law. My step-daughters. I love and I love and I love.Loving people is hard. It can be easier to just not do it. Sure, it brings brightness and beauty, but so does a sunrise and that is less likely to cause emotional turmoil.
Love is like a tornado. As are most of our human emotions.
States of uncertainty, tumultuous and worrisome, unpredictable and unconfined.
But love is not a tornado.
Love is the hardest most beautiful thing you can do with your tumultuous tornado like emotions.
Don't be afraid to unleash love upon yourself and those who are worth the wonderful exhaustion and vulnerability of it.
Like a tornado.
your love can reach the clouds, command attention, and influence the landscape.
Do that.
Hugs, smiles, and LOVE!!! <----- not a tornado.
