My Hearts on Fire

What is Love?

"It's love if they order one of those desserts that are on fire. They like to order those because it's just like how their hearts are -- on fire." -- Christine, age 9

9 Things People Don't Tell You About Love

We know it's complicated, like 20 people playing twister complicated- and we don't understand it most of the time. We know it's hard work and beautiful and eventually ends up with a baby, which kills slowly the love prior to it. (jk jk I'm fucked up, I know...) But what are things one has to find out for oneself? 

1. No matter how hard you try to escape it; it ties you up...in coils of familiarity and comfort the likes of which you learn to yield to.
2. Love is everlasting, but the pain of losing that love is temporary.
3. Its a ton of work, and you can't just walk away, even when that's the easiest thing-because suddenly it isn't. 
4. There is always a reacher and a settler. 
5. Love is doomed without the stronghold of mutual understanding.
6. Love isnt all gumdrops and unicorns shitting rainbows. But the point is to get past that.
7. Love's barriers are those we impose on ourselves. Cultures and backgrounds are irrelevant.
8. Love is giving someone complete control of your emotions; to give them the power to make you the happiest, the angriest, or the saddest person to have walked on this Earth.
9. Love has no definition, and no two people love the same.

These were all taken from loved one's I have loved, pretended to love, loved and lost, and continue to love still. I find it extraordinary that love is so simple, simple in that it is the instant cure all for almost any ailment, and so complex as to bring as much sorrow and anger as any it has tried to assuage. I didn't want love. Now I'm not so sure I can live without it. So what is it really? And who are we without it?

When one is in love one begins by deceiving one's self. And one ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance. -- Oscar Wilde