“L” is for love

“L” is for love

My writer friends say I am a “closet romance writer.” (I deny this. Completely. ;) )

While I don’t write romance in the typical sense of romance novels, I do write a lot about love.

I believe love is unconditional and selfless. If it isn’t those things, it’s not a full expression of love. Love isn’t a feeling but a choice, a commitment. Yes, it encompasses feelings, but emotions are fickle; if there is nothing behind the feelings, then when struggle, sickness, or even just the natural ebb and flow of life come, things will crumble. There are different aspects – friend-love, familial, romantic/sexual – but ultimately, everything must flow from unconditional love.

Though my story is in no way a “love story” as many would understand the term, love truly permeates all of it.

Rab’s sacrificial love for Ari is the foundation of everything. Both girls would do anything for each other, and by the beginning of the story, Rab has already given up so much to take care of her sister. Their mother stands in stark contrast to that, incapable of loving either of them and incapable of loving herself.  The lack of love from their mother has scarred both girls, more deeply than they know, and a lot of the story will deal with them coming to grips with their terrible upbringing.

Rab and Eda also love each other on the same level as Rab and Ari; they are sisters not by blood, but sisters all the same. Sorek loves all of his rebels; they, too, are his family. Rab and Sorek have a rough beginning, but love grows between them – and not just romantic love. Though Mas starts out cold and detached, he learns to love others sacrificially as well, seen most clearly in his manner toward Ari. The members of the half-breed group (introduced later) have been through awful things and forged a bond only shared suffering can create. Love is the result: deep, selfless, healing love.

Therein is of the most beautiful aspects of love is just that: it is healing.

True love always moves toward healing, wholeness. It frees. It restores. It comforts. It protects. It strengthens. It endures in the face of pain, struggle, and even rejection. It fights for those in need. It doesn’t take, but gives instead. It offers everything without expecting anything back.

And those touched by true love are never the same.