What's love...?
A secondhand emotion, according to the immortal Tina Turner.
But to many Romance authors?
It's everything.
My friend and co-author of the upcoming Johan's Quest series, Brita Addams, gave me some thoughts on the subject. See, to her, love is truly everything. She's lived it, felt it, breathes it in each day. Whereas, I tend to lean more toward Tina Turner's take on it, for love--romantic love--remains but a dream... a hope in my life. But then if we were all cut from the same mold and lived similar lives... how boring would this world be, right?
Love is defined as many things by many people. There's the grandiose hearts and flowers, wine and expensive trips. That works to acquire love, maybe, but to keep it, well, that takes something more.
Brita says:
I prefer to accept a more conventional explanation--the all-important emotion that seems to make the world go round. As romance authors, we write about it in glowing terms: commitment, a lifelong need that burns in all of us.
To me, love is that understanding that there is someone in the world who knows me and cares for me anyway. Whoever I am today, I'm accepted and I live in someone else's thoughts. Love is that one person who's by my side when the chips are down, slogging it out, whatever the adversity. It's caring for someone more than you care for yourself, because you know they feel the exact same way.
It's getting down to the end of your life and knowing you've lived a life that touched others and that touch had an impact. You meant the world to someone else, you were their world, the reason they got up in the morning.
Bryl says:
The above rendition of LOVE is exactly how Brita has managed to gain my attention, worm her way into my heart, and earn my trust, which I do not offer freely. Personally, I have no clue how to define love. Even after thinking on it an entire day, I came up at a loss for words.
The closest I think I come to knowing love is that protectiveness that overcomes me when someone hurts anyone I care about. Or maybe it's that smile that crosses my face when others would cringe from walking in on Sugar Daddy making a complete ass of himself.
Seeing my dismay, understanding my struggle, Brita went on to further try and explain, and in doing so by painting such an apt picture, finally helped me to understand:
How many funerals have you attended where people stood up and spoke about the deceased? I've attended many and the one common thread through all of them is striking. Never, has anyone ever said "Oh, what a wonderful carpenter he was," or "What a wonderful nurse she was." Instead, the folks who stand to speak, do so with tears, their sense of loss deep and heartfelt. The words they speak are of the importance of the deceased's life, the impact that person had on those who loved them.
The answer to the question, "What's Love Got to do With It?" I'm sure the answer is different for everyone, but my answer is Love has everything to do with it. Without love, a person's life is empty. Love is all that makes things worthwhile, all that, when things are said and done, is most enduring.
So, now that I've been laid bare, you tell me,
What does love mean to you?
Leave a comment today and be entered in a drawing to win one Love Revisited: Rye and Chal Tee or a pdf copy of today's release.
Bryl R. Tyne is a wrangler by nature and a writer by choice, published with Noble Romance Publishing, Ravenous Romance, Dreamspinner Press, STARbooks Press, Untreed Reads Publishing, Changeling Press, and Amber Quill Press. Check out Bryl's bi-monthly column: My Way Find out more about the author at: bryltyne.com
