Love is...love

One major piece of wisdom I am taking from 2013 is about love. This is probably the most important lesson of (my) life, really. I'm not being hyperbolic.

There is only one type of love.

We label love as platonic, romantic, familiar, parental, etc. but it's all just love. Love isn't any different if it is between a mother and son or lifelong friends. It's no different between brothers as it is between lovers. Not really. 

What does "love" really mean? To hold another's well-being as the same as your own. To help that person be happy, healthy and fulfilled. To want to share the best of you with that person. To help ease the other's burdens. To listen, see, and know the other. Or at least do your damnedest to see, hear and know the other.

So in life we have loves who leave us, die, move away, fall out of touch, disappear. But does the love go away? I've been thinking about these lines from Arcade Fire's song "Afterlife": 

Oh when love is gone
Where does it go?
And where do we go?

In those times of transition, when things change or fall apart, that's when love is tested. That's when we see if what we called love was not just something easier, less than. Real love is hard. It's not easy or cheap or something that just disappears with a harsh word or a forgotten promise. Real love lives even after we die or our relationships change. Real love is forever.

We may call it something else, but love lives on. We may try to numb it, squash it or hide it. But if it was ever really there; it will persist. It will change. It will take a different form, but be made of the same essence. 

So if I love you today, I will always love you. If I loved you before, I still do. And if we someday happen to grow love between us, well that will be here long after we are not.