Is this Love?

Over the years, one always shares many kinds of relationships. The most defining, enriching and fulfilling one is the romantic relationship or what one commonly calls a love relationship. It is difficult to assess whether most of us certainly understand the need and desire of a love relationship, but one considers it to be the most genuine and powerful way to fill one’s life with love, of course, I being one of them.

Much later did I realize that this was completely untrue. Many stories about friends come to mind, one of whom, like many people, thought she would perhaps be lonely, empty or possibly incomplete if she did not have anyone to share her love with. She shared this so called love relationship with a person who was extremely abusive towards her. To make a long story short, I asked her after much desperation, to end this futile relation, often suggesting to her that she would meet another who would love her better.

Well after a long and prolonged separation, many of her friends, of course, offered her well meaning advice – tried to set her up, directed her to clubs, various classes and newer ways of meeting people. But none of them seemed to do the trick. Then I suggested her to volunteer and she did. Volunteering at NGOs and animal shelters across the city had struck just the right chord. This simple act of giving love and caring had acted as a catalyst in changing her life. She was happier than before and it had expanded her definition of love.

Romantic love, marriage, partnership, relationships are all wonderful but there are thousands of other ways of expressing love. One has so much potential in giving love that we often forget this in our quest for seeking love.

One of the most loving times in my life was back in the time when I had taken a break from college education. I was volunteering at one of the most popular animal shelters in my city. Never did I imagine that I would get the opportunity of becoming a surrogate mother to a deer fawn. The experience had completely changed my life and attitude towards love. I was able to spend time with this wonderful little fawn, who would follow me all over the shelter and would tug at my jeans when hungry, so I could feed him with a bottle of milk. Unfortunately I couldn’t continue volunteering at the shelter. A year later I had to revisit the shelter, my guess is that it wasn’t a coincidence, just to find a young deer running towards me when I reached the enclosure.

When we are filled with love, whether the feeling is towards humans, animals or just love of life, we put ourselves in a position to attract love. We change our perspective and become more satisfied. We are often looking for love forgetting that we have so much love to give. Discovering new ways to love and share metamorphoses us into gentler, kinder and wiser human beings. We find ourselves surrounded with so much love than ever before. It isn’t critical whether you want to be in a love relationship or not, whatever your circumstances preferences or dreams, expressing your love is always a good idea.