“Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing”*

“A man without a woman is like a ship without a sail. It’s like a boat without a rudder. It’s like a kite without a tail. A man without a woman is like a ship upon the sand. There’s only one thing worse in this universe, it’s a woman, without a man….” – unknown

Too often what we seek in another is what we want or need rather than what we can give or what we are needed for. When you have met that someone for whom all you wish to do is give, you will have found true and unconditional love.

Do not fear that it will be a one-sided relationship. If that person is the one, then all they will want to do is give to you. So by definition, both of you will be receiving without the expectation of a return for your giving. Giving in order to receive often sets us up for the disappointments that eat away.

“Immature love says: ‘I love you because I need you.’  Mature love says: ‘I need you because I love you.” – Erich Fromm

“Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.” – Dalai Lama

“Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” – Robert Heinlein

“You don’t truly love someone until you can take what they need to give you.” – David Suissa

In this giving, don’t fear losing yourself. You will be enhancing yourself. Your uniqueness, value, and purpose remain intact. You keep it by sharing it with the other and vice-versa.

“Love turns one person into two and two into one.” – Rabbi Don Yitchak Abarbanel

“Two people, two souls, synergize the best in both and overcome the least in each.” – Chassidic Adage

Sometimes the wants block finding love using the excuses of geographical distance, age difference, financial desires, he or she doesn’t do this or doesn’t like that…., etc., rather than letting go and letting the love flow

 “Most people have a harder time letting themselves love than finding someone to love them.” – Bill Russell

 “We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.” – Tom Robbins

“I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it.” – Nicolas Cage

Primary rule of a healthy and lasting partnership – communicate, communicate, and communicate

“Assumptions are the termites of relationships.” – Henry Winkler

What Love does

 “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” – Lao Tzu

“To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” – David Viscott

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” — Theodor Seuss Geisel

* Title of the Academy Award winning movie and song.

updated from the original post of 2/14/12