Love Isn't Love Until you Give It Away

   The definition of love according to the dictionary--- the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another.
  I like to contemplate things in the morning when I wake up. This week has been hard, Father's Day came as it always does and I found myself being extremely sad this year, missing my father terribly even though he has been gone for  a few years. So I wrote a post about him, writing helps me get out my emotions. This morning I realized the greatest gift my Father gave me was the example of generosity, of giving to others without regarding the cost.
     One of the things I have seen and I love about this country I live in, the United States, is that when there is a crisis a person can see giving at its best. I remember after 9/11 there were so many needs and one of them was for people to donate blood. On my break from work I went downtown to donate blood, the line was so long that it wound down around the corner. It consumed my hour long break, but I do not think I have ever minded waiting less than I did that day. It made me feel good inside to be able to help. There is something about giving that blesses a person, it makes no logical sense in a world where when we receive something we are happy. But the greatest gift we can give or receive is love. Somehow when we pour love out we receive something back, something we cannot begin to understand, but can feel in our hearts. It is the greatest sense of well being inside of us to love others.
     Just yesterday I called a friend on the phone, he lives in another country where there is  dangerous flooding near the area where he lives. I told him that I and another friend of his were concerned for him, he assured me that he was o.k.. Later on he got online and told him how much it had meant to him that I had cared to call and express my concern for him. I don't think I can adequately express how good that made me feel, to think that one simple phone call could bless another person. Such a small thing but do not despise the day of small things because wonderful and great things can come from the small things in life, the seemingly inconsequential things, the little things matter.
     Love is alive, it is a living growing thing, it is the little things in life that add up. It is the attention one gives that makes it thrive and grow. Just like a plant, if you disregard it, eventually it will wither up and die from lack of attention. Love needs to be cultivated in our own hearts and I believe the only way to do this is by giving love away, freely giving, without regard to the cost, without fear, but in joy and abandonment.
     There is a saying, "The love in our hearts wasn't put there to stay, for love isn't love until you give it away."By the very definition of love it cannot be love until it is given to another. The greatest reward that you will ever receive in this life is from the giving of love. From the song The Rose, one little verse in particular says it all---- I say love, it is a flower, and you it's only seed.