I tend to think that breathless, romantic love you feel in the beginning of a relationship is fueled by the emotions of newness to a relationship. There is a lot of uncertainty about the new romantic interest in your life and learning more about that person seems to consume your thoughts and your heart and your mind. It's new, it's exciting, it's romance!! That feeling of being head-over-heels in love with butterflies in your stomach and giddiness in your heart...it is so wonderful, yet it can be very unstable, sometimes unsettling. As with any emotional adventure...there are ups and downs and you just feel all over the map. How many of us have gone there only to have it end in heart-break?
So is Romance love?
I think it is love in its infancy...and...if it survives can develop into
real love or true love...it must face trials and challenges and still remain bound. It's when the emotions of romance settle down just enough so that reality of the relationship can develop and then love solidifies itself in acceptance and commitment. In real people terms: its when you see the really good, the really bad and the really nasty side of your lover and realize... there is no such thing as quitting or walking away or separating or leaving, it was simply never in the equation.
I have to say I have been fortunate enough these past 14 1/2 years to have found someone who never saw quit in our equation. It's been wonderful and there never seems to be a dull moment with us.
So what of romance after all the settling down? Oh yes, it is still there and going strong and it has come full circle. Now, instead of standing on the shifting sands of uncertainty...we've reached solid ground...knowing we're committed til the end, no matter what it holds. We have no quit in this relationship...and it just makes the romance that much more real.
Now that's love.
So what's your take on romance and love?
