Topic V: What is LOVE?

I doubt I'm in any way qualified to answer this question. That is, if you want an answer filled with universal wisdom of any sort.

Still, it is an interesting question, and I've had a difficult time trying to come up with a coherent answer. To be frank, I still don't have an answer. But then I realized that I was trying to find a way to narrow down my definition until it was both airtight and waterproof, only to discover that I am not capable of pure, undying, and unconditional love. I feel that as a human, knowing how thoughts, feelings, and life circumstances are constantly changing, that even my deepest feelings about love can also suffer from impermanence.

Which is a drag, I know. At least that's what I was thinking to myself as I grabbed my mug to pour myself a cup of coffee. I grabbed my favorite mug, one with I [heart] NY printed on it, and I instantly thought, "God, I love this mug." Followed immediately by my thinking, "and, God, I LOVE my morning cup of coffee!"

My internal Swedish voice wanted to scold me for so flagrantly using the term love to describe how I felt in the above statements. That's one criticism Americans get from (some) Swedes: that we are superficial because we use words and expressions like "love" and "how are you" without genuinely meaning it.

The thing is, when I drink my morning coffee out of my favorite mug, at that particular moment I am as close to experiencing bliss as I can come. So I put a gag on my internal Swedish voice and wondered instead, "What else do I love?"

Instantly, a picture of Ben & Jerry's popped into my head (big surprise).

Lighting the candles in the lanterns I have hanging on my porch this dreary, rainy, November morning.

Silence.

Yoga, or rather, how yoga makes me feel after a session on the mat.

Ocean waves.

Hearing my children and husband laugh.

You see, once I broadened my definition to include anything that brings me joy instead of excluding everything that was less than perfect, finding a definition of love that I could live with suddenly became easy.