In this month of love and hearts and all thinks pink and sparkly, as a part of our quest for Internet Domination, we want to know: What is Love? What do you Love? Have you felt Love?
Join us as we celebrate Love.
February, especially Valentine's Day, is an unfortunate month for me. It's the month that anything that can go wrong, does so. My beloved grandfather passed away near Valentine's Day.
This year, I watched my best friend get showered in love from her boy; it could've been so easy to get angry and jealous over what I don't have. Instead, I laughed with her. I focused on the love I do have.
Growing up, family love was always the most important. We are here for each other, no matter what, and will never abandon or leave one of us behind. In my immediate family, (Mum, Dad, me) it was an even tighter bond. We were best friends and family all in one.
My parents had the type of true love you always read about in story books, and that love was shared with me. This powerful, true, unconditional love was tested by fire last year, but I know that it's still here.
True love is not waking up and facing all the tiny details of life day in-and-day-out: it's holding the hand of someone you love more than anything, watching as they slowly slip away until they are gone.
Now, Dad and I are all we have left, but our love and strength as a family continues. He has stood by my side as I made a horrible decision that hurt so many others, never turning his back. Instead, he held me as I cried.
He's still helping us put back the pieces of our lives.
I'm lucky to have found a source of love I had no idea would be so important. I found unconditional love in a six-pound ball of fur (a guinea pig) and in a half-ton ball of fur (a horse).
Both of these animals came into my life in very unexpected ways, but without them I would be lost.
The guinea pig is the only reason I keep waking up and getting out of bed some days. My adorable guinea pig was my main comfort as my Mum died.
The horse was abused before he ended up at the barn where I work. I am the only one he trusts completely, which took months and months of careful work to gain.
Now, when I start to have a negative moment or feel that I don't even deserve sun anymore, I go see him. I just rest on his back and everything is okay again. He is my support and keeps me on a straight path.
I'm also lucky to have the love of my college girl (we have been through hell and back together), my other college friends, a guy I met two years ago, a barn full of people who took me in as their own, families of friends who I know are always here for me, and most of all, my best friend.
We've been friends for eight years now, and we've never failed to be there for each other. She held my hand as I cried, and I held her when she came from across the nation in time to say goodbye to my Mum. Her family is mine and mine is hers and nothing can change this.
I'm lucky to still feel love. I've done terrible things in my life; things I don't think I deserve forgiveness for, but I still love all of those I hurt and wish them the best.
I'm also lucky to have my Dad. Wherever he is, I know I'm safe and loved no matter what.
So this year, I will focus on what I do have in my life. I focus on the love I have shared with some and the love I still share with others. Life might not be what I hoped it would be, and everything might still feel like it's one breath away from collapsing, but I am loved unconditionally, and I love back with the same force.
I might have given up the fight, feeling for the first time not at war with two lovely women I have hurt, but I still have love.
This is the love that my Mum raised me with; it can never be taken away from me.
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