V-Day is here which means chocolate is near! Well maybe not quite here and not quite near but it's pretty damn close and I'm rounding up. With this day of love upon us it got me thinking about not chocolates and roses but the origins of this holiday and giving us a time to reflect on what a massive emotion love really is.
Yes, I am head over heels in love with my boyfriend of two years now. Although none of these photos show my night in shining armour you can be sure to expect some of him very soon. For today I wanted to take photos at one of the most beautiful places, in my opinion, that are on campus. I don't know why they don't plant more of these flowers around but if anyone from FIU is reading this you should take this as a hint. I love that through all of these wild vines with sharp thorns at the end are these brilliant flowers in a shade that's not quite pink and not quite red but like an elevated shade of blood. Their petals are frail but if left untamed they can grow into these huge clusters becoming even more magnificent and it shocks you that something so beautiful can come out of something so dangerous and ugly.
My favorite movies are heavily romantically infused ones, every Sunday I spend my morning reading poetry about broken hearts and fantastic loves, and my favorite songs are usually those that can make me cry. All of these things have a heart wrenchingly deep reaction to this emotion of love. To feel something so deeply that it can make you write words that bring people to tears is something that is worth celebrating in my opinion. I recently read that at MIT a research study was done that proved love was deeper than just an emotion but an instinct like food or water.
Many of you may question this research but I pose for you a question. If love is not an instinct why do we constantly feel a need for companionship? Why do dogs or other mammals find themselves establishing mates for life rather than jumping from mate to mate? Why is it that we are never happy being alone after a certain period of time? These may be questions you can easily answer or not so easily but at the end of the day my point is that love is something to embrace, not push away from. It is an emotion that can reverberate through your body for days at a time. It can feel like a drug and also like a cure but mostly it just feels all consumingly comforting.
Even if your single you can still embrace this feeling of love. Find places that make you feel wonderful and sit there for hours at a time. Start hobbies that make you feel good about yourself and about what your doing. Eat things that taste delicious, even if it is that slice of Reese's cheesecake. Love is not something that you can only find in another person but it is a mind set and a lifestyle. In a google search of "to love is to...." the first thing to come up was to be vulnerable. Some may think that to be vulnerable is a weakness but to me it is uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. It is the core, the heart of meaningful human experiences.