Love is Not a Dirty Word

I know it can be hard to believe, but love isn't a dirty word. Musiq Soulchild made a song about the topic. It's true: it's often misused and abused, tossed around like any other word, without any thought. Isn't it funny how we use it? Think about it: I love shopping. I love my family. I love my job. I love spending time with my friends. We use "love" to describe our adoration for people, inanimate objects and hobbies. True enough we have different degrees of admiration for them, but one thing's for sure-we genuinely care about them.

This may be perhaps one of the main reasons the word "love" is misused so frequently. Perhaps people have heard it so much that somewhere in the shuffle they've lost the true meaning of it. Or they equate love with someone or something they once held dear to their hearts and were sourly disappointed. I can't help but think of all the hearts out there that were once filled with that genuine love, but lost it (or most of it) and refuse to open themselves to the possibility...

What do you do when you run into this? What's a single 20-something to do as she works the courage to open herself up for that possibility?

She does just that-she opens her heart, yet keeps her eyes open. She continues to adore those objects and hobbies, but holds those people in her life a little bit closer to her. She lives life to the fullest, enjoying and appreciating the smaller things in life, like hummus and wine after a day of work one evening or dancing in the sunshine on a spring day. She continues to LOVE every aspect of life and pray that it's so infectious she spreads it to the next person and he or she pays it forward.

I challenge you (and myself) to do something-think about the word "love" before saying it. It's one of those words that shouldn't be trapped in the sewage system somewhere. It should have life, and an opportunity to bloom into infinite possibilities meant for good, and never for evil.