Love demands time.

Love demands investing

lots,

lots,

lots of time in it.

Time you never even knew you had, until love demanded it.

 

Love demands patience.

Love demands persisting through

long,

long,

long years of fruitless attempts.

Experiences that would rob anyone of patience, except yours… because love demands patience.

 

Love demands deep breaths.

Love demands not running

way,

way,

way too far ahead at once.

So many conclusions to leap to, but love demands taking it one deep breath at a time.

 

Love demands sacrifice.

Love demands

sacrificing,

sacrificing,

sacrificing the notion that one’s ego is more sacred than another’s heart.

Cutting down on the “I, I, I”, and seeing the I in you.

 

Love demands shyness.

Love demands approaching another

cautiously,

cautiously,

cautiously, building up a strong friendship base.

Too shy to do or say anything that will knowingly make the other uncomfortable, because love demands shyness.

 

Love demands boldness.

Love demands

clearly,

clearly,

clearly saying what needs to be said.

Approaching real communication could seem like the edge of a cliff sometimes, but falling won’t happen if one remembers that love demands boldness.

 

Love demands courage.

Love demands peeling off the mask of nonchalance and being

real,

real,

real.

Having the courage to be vulnerable… because vulnerability is the courage that love demands.

 

Love demands laughter.

Love demands

abandoning,

abandoning,

abandoning artificial pretentious mannerisms.

Allowing the air to ripple with the sound waves of natural laughter is what love demands.

 

Love demands uncertainty.

Love demands

swimming,

swimming,

swimming ahead to a shore you cannot see but trust exists for you.

An island you have faith you will reach, walk on, live on… so you keep swimming towards the uncertainty until it fades away.

 

Love demands entering

temporary,

temporary,

temporary discomfort.

Out of your comfort zone are situations necessary for self-growth and permanent comfort.

 

Love demands a mystical combination of heart and mind.

Requiring

sincere,

sincere,

sincere heart faith and clear-headed logical thinking.

Not sweating the small down stuff while not underestimating the small up moments.

 

In a nutshell… to make a long story short…

Love,

Love,

love demands loving.

~~~~~~~

-A.S.

February 2018