Skip to main content

What is love



Love used to be romance: roses and chocolates, candles and cards, Judith McNaught and Johanna Lindsey novels, dashing heroes, dinner at restaurants with no prices on the menus, lingering glances over single flame flicker...time enough together to feel in love, time enough together to be apart and not regret it because there was all the time we needed.

Love has since morphed in something more like patriotism, joy in tribe. Counting on one another, being together in thick and a whole lot of thin, thinking more as we than me.

We marvel, "Look at this family we have created."

We despair, "Look at this family we have created."

Now love is kissing hair and smelling something funny, then realizing your precious progeny has dumped your expensive new hand lotion over her head.

Love is a lap, yours, that offers safety and shelter to your adventurous new toddler in those not-so-adventurous moments.

It's my breast, that piece of anatomy I finally stopped thinking about, which now, once again, consumes my mind---and that of my baby---practically 24/7. It's the magic number, the answer to the question, the pill that cures all ills.

Love is watching a one year old discover and knowing yes, your heart is walking out and about in the world.

It's understanding garbled words from a little new talker, when nobody else hears anything recognizable.

It's laying in bed listening to a four year old tell a story about a Care Bear birthday party...15 times, one for each Care Bear.

It's making a toaster waffle only to learn that they are DISS-GUSS-TING! And only yogurt oatmeal will do.

Love is being able to take that punch in the gut, "I hate you!" and keeping calm until you figure out what the real problem is...and trying to console yourself that hey, this is a shining mommy moment, she trusts me enough to let it all loose.

Love is our bedtime poem:

How do I love you?
No matter what.
How much do I love you?
To the moon and back.
And on days like today...
When I...
I love you twice as much.
I love you when you're happy.
I love you when you're sad.
I love you when you're good.
I love you when you're bad.
I love you when you're up.
I love you when you're down.
I love you when you smile.
I love you when you frown.
I love you when you're serious.
I love you when you're a nut.
I love you...
No matter what.

Yeah, this post drips sap...eh, but I like sap. It's romantic. It's love.

Have a great Valentine's Day! (I also like Hallmark Holidays.)

See lots o' love at mommybloggers.com

By Julie Pippert
Artful Media Group
Museum Quality Digital Art and Photography
Limited Edition Prints
Artful by Nature Fine Art and Photography Galleries
The Golden Orchid: Original and Unique Wearable Art

© 2006. All images and text exclusive property of Julie Pippert. Not to be used or reproduced.

Comments

KK said…
Julie, I loved this post.

KK
February 15, 2006 at 9:14 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum

After being confronted with written evidence, Julie admits that she is a total attention whore. In some things, in some ways, sometimes I look outward for validation of my worth and existence. I admit it. It's my weak spot, my vanity spot . If you say I am clever, comment on a post, offer me an award, mention me on your blog, reply to a comment I left on your blog, or in any way flatter me as a writer...I am hopelessly, slavishly devoted to you. I will probably even add you to my blogroll just so everyone can see the list of all the cool kids who actually like me . The girl, she knows she is vain in this regard , but after much vanity discussion and navel-gazing , she has decided to love herself anyway, as she is (ironically) and will keep searching for (1) internal validation and (2) her first person . Until I reach a better point of self-actualization, though, may I just say that this week you people have been better than prozac and chocolate (together, with a side of white choc...
16 comments
Read more

NEW and UNDISCOVERED BLOGGERS: I'll link you!

** Hey please come vote for this at SK*RT to get the word out! ** You know what? There are new bloggers out there. I know! NEWBIES. What's more...there are undiscovered bloggers, untapped wells of talent. But we don't know about you. I know, some people are shy, not really joiner types, don't prefer blog blasts or carnivals and so forth. So tell you what: I'll try to create a link list with some regularity. All you have to do is comment and let me know how to find you (aka paste in your link). Write a brief description of your blog, you know a couple of sentences a la "Hi I'm a mommyblogger from Detroit and I have two preschoolers who are very loud and creative, all funny stories on my blog!" or "I'm so deep I make Julie look shallow. If you wish you could have hung with Plato, come by my blog." or "I'm a guy who likes to talk about motorcycles." or "My blog is all about space exploration." And I'll link you. I...
34 comments
Read more

Does the abstinence message for drug use work?

This past week I've made time to read up about social aspect awareness and education programs for young children in our public schools. My interest, of course, began with the red ribbon program , which I became alarmingly familiar with due to my daughter's negative experience . I read the Brain, Child article ( Scared Straight? Or Just Scared? Do elementary school anti-drug campaigns work? by Juliette Guilbert), which was excellent, as well as the research study that found the Boomerang effect of drug education and awareness programs that article cited (see a fact sheet that provides source citing for the University of Illinois article and also read the original Brain, Child article for more information). In short, our techniques are not working: "Levels of drug use did not differ as a function of whether students participated in D.A.R.E. Every additional 36 hours of cumulative drug education…were associated with significantly more negative attitudes towards police…m...
24 comments
Read more