What is The Meaning of Love?

The other day, my wife, Selena, picked up the latest copy of Real Simple magazine while we were at the grocery store.  At home, as she paged through it, she found an essay contest and suggested that I enter it.  After all, how hard could it be and the prize was $3,000!  After looking at the dates of the contest (May 3, 2011-September 15, 2011) we decided that wouldn't work.  We bought the magazine on September 15, a few minutes before the deadline ended.  Selena  said she had never even seen the contest in earlier magazines, but here the September issue had the contest, which ended that month.  Anyway...I digress...horribly.

The essay contest was "When did you first understand the meaning of love"?  We talked about it for awhile.  Most people may say it was their first love in school, maybe a religious experience, or something with their spouse.  My thoughts first went to my wife.  Did she help me to first understand the meaning of love?  Perhaps how she treats me on a daily basis, how she fixes me a lunch for work, or even how she treats our children.  Mothers often display so many wonderful forms of love, that it should be easy to understand love through them.  But alas, my thoughts went to another fine woman.

I had been driving home with a friend from Washington, D.C. after a business trip and we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch.  We had finished eating and I decided to stop in the restroom before we continued our drive home.  As I entered, I was met with the sounds of people talking and the most horrible bathroom smell you can imagine.  Without being overly descriptive, I mean the outhouse type of a smell.  In one of the stalls, two pair of feet were visible...one male, one female.  These feet were those of an elderly couple.  It was obvious, by the words I heard from the lady, that the man had had a terrible accident.  She was cleaning him up and, it appeared to me, trying to console him a little bit.  After all, I am sure the man was embarrassed and felt a bit of humiliation.

This woman was taking care of her husband in the truest fashion of "in sickness and in health, for better or for worse".  She understood what love meant!!!  She knows what love is...that it is an ACTION VERB, not a noun.  You have to DO love, not be in love, or feel love.  As badly as I felt for that elderly man, I was so happy for him and proud of that woman.  He had a wonderful partner in his life who obviously loved him greatly.

That day, I was able to put aside my having to deal with the "environment" of that bathroom and just be amazed at that display of love.  I think I understand love now...and what unconditional love really is.