Love: What Exactly Is That?

It’s February! That means Valentine’s Day is here, and love is in the air.

 But what, exactly, is love? That’s a question that has been asked many times by people a lot smarter than I. But, I’ve got a few answers:

Love is looking over the menu and knowing exactly which two things your spouse is struggling to choose between.

Love is letting someone else hold the remote, even though you are more than capable of operating it yourself.

Love is learning to sleep with less than half of the blankets, because someone has a tendency of taking slightly more than their share of them.

Love is trudging into the kitchen and making dinner for the family, even though what you’d rather be doing is taking a nice nap after a long day at work.

Love is not taking the last piece of that certain pizza, because you know it’s someone else’s favorite topping.

Love is grabbing a water bottle at the last minute for your kid’s basketball game because you know they forgot to get one for themselves.

 Love is letting the kids pick the music for the car ride, even though you know that means you know you’ll be listening to the soundtrack of “Frozen” for the 828th time.

Love is trying something new and different, because you know someone well enough that you’re sure they’ll like it.

Love is doing something cozy and familiar, because you know that certain someone in your life will enjoy it.

 Love is a many splendored thing.

Love is knowing when to tease, and knowing when to stop before it goes too far.

Love is not getting upset when sharing nachos and someone takes the chip with the most cheese on it.

Love is being able to talk about anything.

 Love is being able to sit in silence in each other’s presence.

Love is trying your best to keep the kids from waking up your spouse when they are taking a nap.

Love is not being mad when you are awakened from a nap by one of your kids. (Not being mad at the kid, AND not being mad at the spouse who let it happen.)

Love is making sure the kids have clean soccer jerseys for their next game.

Love is waiting to watch the new episode of that show you’ve been watching because you want to make sure you can see it together.

Love is cooking without using that one ingredient you like, because you know someone else really can’t stand that ingredient.

Love is suddenly smiling—seemingly at random. (But it’s not random. It’s because a stray thought of a certain someone happened to cross your mind.)