What is your definition of love?

Dear Reader:

It is hard for me to believe that it has been almost two years since I finished my story to pass down to my family. It took 52 weeks to complete … answering 52 of the most difficult questions ( including this one) I ever pondered. It really was a gargantuan task of love.

Yesterday… as I was dusting off the coffee table… I casually picked it up… early morning sunlight was sprinkling dancing beams across the cover… as if inviting me to open it again. When I did… it immediately turned to the chapter question… What is Your Definition of Love?

Now I was curious… how in the world did I answer that? I began to read the first paragraphs. My answer actually surprised me … all this time later… instead of critiquing my response… I astonished myself… no doubt… I was not alone when I was answering each weekly question that year. I wrote:

How can it be so hard to define a four-letter term like ” love” … yet it really made me pause and ponder. Feelings are always more difficult to pin-point in a precise definition than concrete facts… because feelings are abstract and invisible… with no perimeters to enclose their meaning. On further thought… love should never be enclosed… it must be free to expand exponentially like the wind and clouds.

This is the best definition I can conjure up after much thought and deliberation. Love is a feeling of belonging in connection with life’s vast relationships between all living things… a feeling that separates life from mere existence.

Think about it if you dare… a world without love. It is really too terrible to contemplate. What if we all came into this world like sea turtle hatchlings… left alone to fend for ourselves along our path in life… with no relationships with any other living creature until we die? To never feel love or security or a connection to anything else in the universe? ( except perhaps the pull of the moon?)

So until tomorrow… enclosed is my vision of a love photograph… surrounded by people who have given me a place of belonging and acceptance… and yes, love… the greatest force on earth!

About Becky Dingle

I was born a Tarheel but ended up a Sandlapper. My grandparents were cotton farmers in Laurens, South Carolina and it was in my grandmother’s house that my love of storytelling began beside an old Franklin stove. When I graduated from Laurens High School, I attended Erskine College (Due West of what?) and would later get my Masters Degree in Education/Social Studies from Charleston Southern. I am presently an adjunct professor/clinical supervisor at CSU and have also taught at the College of Charleston. For 28 years I taught Social Studies through storytelling. My philosophy matched Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Today I still spread this message through workshops and presentations throughout the state. The secret of success in teaching social studies is always in the story. I want to keep learning and being surprised by life…it is the greatest teacher. Like Kermit said, “When you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you rot.”

View all posts by Becky Dingle →

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.