To Make Love Grow
It took me years, though ,to learn that the love surrounding our family didn't just happen. We had to learn about love from one another. In fact, love never just happen-not even to people who seem as naturally loving as my mother and father.
But there is, I think, a climate that is best for love-a way of living that hastens the maturity of this matchless gift. First, love needs time. Perhpas people can fall in love in a moment, but mature love is like a tree, moving slowly from the seed to the sheltering splendor of its prime.
People need time to deepen their affection, to appreciate one another's differences, to share one another's joys and griefs... When we accept the differences of loved ones, we find that those very differences provide the mystery and wonder of human relationships.
It's foolish to expect perfection; it dosen't exist. The key is to recognize and enjoy our differences. To grow, love needs another, more elusive quality-the ability to let go.
Finally, love needs words to make it real. Without words, quarrels can't be resolved, resentment can't come to the surface, we close the power to share the meaning of our lives, there are many ways to communicating. The important thing is to acknowledge and expree our feelings.
If we don't, we deprive others of the knowledge of our love and ourselves of the joy that comes from expressing it. Love is not a single act, but a climate in which we live, a lifetime venture in which we are always learning, discovering,growing. It is not destroyed by a single failure, or won by a single caress. Love is a climate-a climate of the heart.
