Thursday, May 24, 2012

"Do not be afraid to explore the difference between 'like' and 'love.'

"Do not be afraid to explore the difference between 'like' and 'love.'

Between Casual and committed
or how might you understand
 what attracts you
 what connects you
 that is more than you

without fully understanding the science or the psychology
just what it is that pulls you together
that persuades you to multiply
and sometimes divide.

The phenomenon of all human interactions..

Love.

The more you embrace the understanding
the more you will find yourself passionate about the subject.

It always amazes me, even tho I was born "before" the internet (that will shock my grandkids one day!  LOL)  That each time I have fallen in love, it has been based on that I like that person.  I mean I like them!  I enjoy talking with them, being with them, we laugh, we understand issues at the same level and we communicate to each other the important things with ease. 

Now the only additional part of my admission here is that "to love" we also must have attraction.  That mystery of their chemicals make my chemicals happy!  (without using a drug.)  I do know that I have many, many friends whom are women and we do the same thing.  The women are from varied walks of life and we may never be "at the same place" in the path this life leads us, but, that same "bond" of level of understanding and common ideas or values makes our friendship and our "like" feature the strongest one I have ever known.

The road which a single individual walks down is filled with the lessons of learning about the difference between a casual relationship and a committed one.  Learning what attracts us to the other person, smell, hair color, laugh and common understandings. (common sense doesn't hurt either, but, with some men, that might be asking way too much!).  What connects us?  What is it that you feel or that "umami," dubbed "the fifth taste."  Hard to describe, it is usually defined as a ultimately satisfying taste or sensation.  And isn't that what we find when we feel love.  That Ultimately satisfying sensation when you are with a person?

Do we really need to know the science of "Love".  Pheromones and hormones?  What makes a great kiss?   Or can we just enjoy the kiss and leave the feelings and emotions alone and enjoy being drawn into this amazing moment in our very short life.





What makes us want to multiply, I still don't know.  I know for me it was a now or never. (and I don't regret one moment of my child's part in my life.)  For others it is the emotional link to this little human or the continuation of the line of heritage or genetic pool.  Some it was chance, but, created when those bonds were at their peak.

Choosing to divide or to separate from the one you love, sometimes by choice or by the others choosing, is a feeling of it is better to be outside this, rather than in this.  So many do this too quickly and so many don't do this soon enough so that the healing can be done and they can return to love.  But it is a choice.

The above poem references at the end that the more we embrace the "understanding" of Love, the more passionate we become about it.  I think of it as the more we realize how special and rare this feeling is that is mutually exclusive between two people, the more we treasure it, safe guard it and protect it.  If we do not take it for granted and work at keeping those bonds firm and solid, the depth and thrill that was once the beginning of the "passion" may not flame like it used to, but, will become a warm ember that is resistant to the toughest of weather.

“We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” 
― Dr. Seuss

P.S.  This T-shirt quote is from the movie, "The Princess Bride".  If you have never seen this movie, it is worth viewing and shows just how a relationship can be trwwww love, and how all great guys learn to say to their partners, "As you wish".  (Translation:  I love you.)

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Intimacy...and the waiting

I seem to be waiting.  Today, I long for someone to gently hold me in their arms and assure me that tomorrow will be a better day.

I am waiting for the intimacy that I desire and dream of so desperately that so many have but, this one part of a relationship, I seem to treasure more than so many other women I have met.  I am not speaking of sex, but, intimacy.  That hug in the kitchen given at the end of a very long day.  That cuddle on the couch time that ends with a kiss on the forehead while you dread getting up off the couch.  That intimacy is what binds more than sex, in a raw form, could ever do.  Don't miss understand, sex is great and I fully intend to enjoy it till I am into my....well...for as long as I can.  But, it is the intimacy which makes it all real and connected.  Encompassing the good and the bad.

I have found that happiness is from within and I carry that with me each day, realizing how fortunate I am to have all I do.  Yet, I long for that bond of attachment and comfort that sees me thru when times are not so kind to the heart or actions from outside my control are striking me like a baseball bat to the body.

I don't understand how so many can go without the human touch of another.  And how long they can do so.  Human touch of another is so vital and seems to be a final piece to the puzzle of who we are as a woman or a man.  To feel the physical connection to another with emotion and endorphin s blazing, but, yet, feeling of comfort and enduring connection (I am sure that there is a scientific name for that as well).  My worry also has started that in protection mode I will be ok with being numb or not having this sensation of touch and being touched.

I am very fortunate in my life.  I have amazing friends, a very supportive family whom also knows the balance of adviser/friend/interfering relative. (all good and well meaning.)

But, for some reason it is the "Intimacy" of a relationship that I miss the most in my life.  And so I wait, till either god or fate introduces me to the one who will fill that role for me.  Or gives me a strength to go without something which I desire so much.

My GF's who I attended spin classes together with were always asking the instructor for more Keith Urban songs and today, of all days, this song seems appropriate.  "When you put your arms around me, you let me know that there is nothing in this world that I can't do."

So, I am waiting. With online dating, meetup groups and the otherworldly lands of craigslist and bootycalls, I could go another direction, but, I am choosing to wait and waiting might be just what God or fate has in mind for me.  So until then...I will be waiting.