When you love someone, it’s more than just sex, candlelit dinners, and movie dates. When you really fall in love with someone, you allow yourself to become the official trash bin for all of that person’s emotional baggage. You don’t necessarily allow yourself to be an emotional doormat. You don’t let the person you love walk all over you. But you allow them to unload all of their feelings on you because you have committed yourself to being there for them when they need you. You are both committed to the idea of being there for each other. Through the fire, through it all. Through the ups and downs. Through the good and bad. True love is genuinely about being your partner’s strength when they’re feeling broken, bent up, and discouraged. It’s about being able to help them weather the storm whenever thy feel like they’re about to be toppled over. Being in love is about ALWAYS showing up for your partner because true love can’t exist when there is no consistency; when there is no dependability or reliability.
When you fall in love with someone for real, you don’t necessarily blind yourself to this person’s flaws. You don’t turn a blind eye to this person’s eccentricities. When you fall in love with someone, you let yourself fall in love with the ENTIRETY of this person. You see them for who they really are; and not just the parts that you like or are fond of. You fall in love with this person’s imperfections because you know that these are part of what make them who they are. You understand that there is no such thing as a perfect person in this life; but there is always going to be a chance at perfect love. It’s all a matter of perspective and commitment. You know that love isn’t necessarily about chasing a fantasy; that a bulk of it is compromising and embracing what is right in front of you.
When you fall in love with someone for real, it’s about spending as much time as you can with this person even when you’re not doing anything exciting. It’s about being able to embrace the mundane nature of life; it’s about being okay with the predictability of stability. When you fall in love with someone, you also grow to fall in love with the idea of being boring with this person; because in love, even the ordinary things can seem exciting. Falling in love with a person for real is doing everything that you possibly can with them; not necessarily because you enjoy doing he same activities or hobbies; but because you like spending time with one another and it doesn’t even matter what you’re doing at this point. When you fall in love with someone, you are able to find joy in each other’s company regardless of where you are or what you’re doing.
When you fall in love with someone for real, you are more concerned about who this person is and what they’re going to become more so than who they were in the past. You understand that even though a person’s past is a huge part of who they are, it shouldn’t necessarily define who that person is. When you fall in love with someone, you understand what it means to really forgive. Because this person is going to hurt you every now and then; but you’re going to find a way to recover from these wounds and forgive these mistakes because you know that your love is more important than anything else in the world. You know that it’s better to love than to cling to any negative rage, fury, or anger that is only going to drive the two of you further and further apart. You know that there is only space for love in your life; and that’s the way that you want things to stay as.
When you love someone for real, it means never being content with where you are. It means always striving for growth and development because you genuinely believe in the power of your love; in the potential of your relationship. You always fight to grow because you know that that’s the only way your relationship is ever going to cope with the changing landscape of the world at large. You know that your relationship is always going to have to evolve whenever society forces it to.
When you truly, genuinely, really fall in love with someone – you do so even when it’s hard. True love is always going to endure. Real love is always going to stand up in the face of adversity. True love is never going to cower under the pressure. Because at the end of the day, true love is never meant to be kept in the darkness. True love always shines.
