LOVE

Everyone is in love with love. We all love a love story, (even if we don't want to admit it) the chase, the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when two new lovers kiss for the first time. The ache you feel in your body as you watch that love unravel and evaporate before your eyes. I fucking love love, too bad it's not real. (Meaning I suck at it) Now, I don't mean all love. The love a mother has for their child is the truest most pure love out there. Nothing can touch it or even come close (obviously there are unfortunate exceptions to this rule) to the feeling a mother has for her young. Animals also receive this special kind of love, much in the way children do. So, for the most part, animals and children are the one's that get all the "real" love. We can love things, only to replace them when they get worn, tattered, and break down. We can love places, only to move when they cease to provide the best jobs or the scenery changes. We can love people, only to hurt them when they don't act as we wish they would. Yet we don't do these things to children or animals. When your dog eats your favorite slippers do you trade her in for a new one? When your son goes through his teenage years and rebels and pushes you away do you pack up and move one day while he is at school? Of course not. Now, I love my slippers, they provide comfort and warmth for me. Sometimes I wear them in the car on my way to work only to change into my "real" shoes minutes before walking in. If I came home and realized that my dog ruined them, chewed up the pink fluffy lining that comforts my feet unlike any other pair I have ever owned, I would be pretty pissed. I would most likely yell, teach the dog some new ways to use profanity, and storm away while her little ears hung low. Minutes later when she came up to me, head bowed, I would pet her and kiss her and apologize for scolding her. She didn't do it on purpose after all. Of course she knows better, but the fluffy lining was screaming at her and it was just too much to take. My oldest was a complete mess during her teenage years. I can say that 2011 was the worst year of my life. I cried most days and usually multiple times. And that's not to say that I don't get extremely frustrated with her, but I would never leave her side...ever. I understand that it's easier to forgive my child, I did however MAKE her, but the dog came from somewhere else. (swear) So why is it we can't show this same courtesy to our lovers? What takes us from " I love you with every fiber of my being" to " Everything this ass hole does makes me want to kill him"? Why can't we love the adults we come across in our lives as well as we do our young and furry friends? Why can't we understand and respect the fact that our husbands didn't do it on purpose? Or that our wives just couldn't help themselves? Or understand that, like our teenagers, as adults we also go through periods of growth where we lose or damn minds? As adults are we so closed minded, so jaded, so egotistical to realize that all of us are imperfect? We are all fighting "the good fight" trying to balance running our lives and living our lives. Knowing this, is it really a huge deal that your partner can't put the toilet seat down? Or, on a heaver note, If little Johnny has a hard time understanding something, as a parent, don't you go about it differently until he does? Why do we find it so difficult to try something different for big Johnny? My feelings aren't more important than my husbands. (But don't think I haven't tried to make them so) And his mistakes are just as damaging as mine. (But don't think he hasn't tried to deemphasize his contribution) We need to become conscious of the certainty that we are all human, we are all flawed, and we are all broken in some fashion. But what do I know? Like I said..I fucking love love...but I suck at it. Now if you will excuse me I'm going to watch "The Notebook".

*As a side note: I'm not talking about people in abusive relationships. I'm talking about "normal" relationships. Whatever the hell that is!