Love Someone

The past year has been a great journey of love for me.

And when I say "love," I mean "LOVE" -- a term that encompasses EVERYTHING: joy, sorrow, pain, happiness, kilig, enchantment, disappointment, ecstasy, passion, bliss, forgiveness, acceptance, fear, freedom...EVERYTHING.

It has been a grueling, exciting, tiring, exhilarating, humbling, record-breaking, jolting, mind-blowing year, and I am emerging a better person because of it. So this entry -- aside from an attempt to use up every imaginable adjective for love (haha) -- is about my realizations about myself.

I am a loving spirit. I don't say this to pat myself on the back, or to boost my self-esteem. I say it because it is part of my being, it is part of my programming, it is something I practice each and every day.

I love.

My soul willingly, unquestioningly, eagerly puts itself out there for love. I am here to give love -- and sometimes, if I'm lucky -- to receive love. I realize, when you open yourself up to anything, you let in everything -- love, pain, bliss, despair -- you have to be ready to face it all.

And that's what happened to me: I took a leap (of faith), and jumped over the edge. I fell. I soared. I crashed. I burned....and I survived it all. :) I guess that makes me pretty damn fearless. And the adrenaline rush it gave me...no other feeling in the world can quite compare.

I feel like I'm permanently inlove, and I choose to stay this way.

And I am inlove: with my job, with my life, with you (yes, you), and with the person I am now. :)

Love someone. It is enough to turn everything around. ♥

"Keep on believing, don't give in.

It'll come and make you whole again.

It always will, it always does...

Love is unstoppable."

* * * *

To drive my point, below is an excerpt from Adrian Tan's commencement speech to the NTU graduating class of 2008

It is far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work – the only kind of work that I find palatable.

Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the true worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul.

Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn’t happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.

You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.

You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.

Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don’t, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.