Pondering with a Purpose-Showing Love

This Week's prompt is:  Showing Love

Love is a many splendored thing
It's the April rose
That only grows in the early spring
Love is nature's way of giving
A reason to be living
The golden crown that makes a man a king

Once on a high and windy hill
In the morning mist
Two lovers kissed
And the world stood still
Then your fingers touched
My silent heart and taught it how to sing
Yes, true love's
A many splendored thing

Ahh, yes, I'm sure we remember the Four Aces singing this song into our hearts.  What a wonderful feeling when cupids arrow is true to the mark. What is love? This quote by Keith Taylor gives us more insight. "Love is expressed as an action and experienced as a feeling, but it has an essence that resists defining in any single way––it encompasses compassion, tolerance, endurance, support, faith, determination and more. Love reaches beyond romance and embraces us in all walks of life as we encounter one another and make choices about respecting and caring for each other."

How can we show love?  I think that the first step is that we must love ourselves.  How can we pass love on to others if we do not have it within us?   Loving yourself is about having self-respect, discovering what really makes you tick and spending your life being true to your real talents.

When we are secure in ourselves then we can begin to show love to others.  Show your devotion to others by being considerate, respectful and thoughtful of their needs, by doing little acts of random kindness and by showing them that you care about their well-being.

Say the words "I love you".  So often we take it for granted that people know how we feel.  Tell them "You mean a great deal to me", "You inspire me", "You are the most amazing person I've ever known", "I am a better person for having known you",  These are all expressions of love.

Love unconditionally. Love is an action from which you should not expect returns. If you cannot love another person without attaching stipulations such as expecting to be loved in equal measure in return,   then it is not true love, but just selfishness.

Be tolerant. Love is about acceptance and tolerance, You must accept the person and all their warts. This is not to say that you approve of all their actions, but that as a whole you accept them.  You must be able to show empathy--feel their pain.

Love those who don't love you.  This is probably the hardest aspect of loving.  The hateful people need our love.  Often love is the only way to deal with them. Love leads to compassionate responses. When hate is directed toward you, repel it with love and use their hatred as motivation to show that tolerance, kindness and acceptance are better ways to get along.

Accept risk. You cannot love without accepting that there is always a chance of loss of the love or of being hurt. But to truly love you must put yourself out there.  If you are hurt you can learn from it, with the realization that you were lucky to have "loved and lost, rather than to have never loved at all."

Make love your eternal thing. Never stop loving other people who are in your life and who come and go. By sharing love around, you create a loving environment and you inspire others to do the same thing. You also show the best reflection of your worth to others when you love.

These are the steps to showing love.  Personally, I want to be remembered as a loving person.

I love you more than starry nights

Than candy and a cake

Than sugar plums and marshmallows

And clear blue lakes

I love you more than chocolate

And big red roses

Than heart lockets and cute pandas

And boxes of Sweetarts

I love you more than lollipops

Than snugly socks

Oh, I love Sour Patch Kids of any size,

But I love YOU the most!

                                             Anonymous