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THE GIFT

Love, a simple little word, however one could read and write volumes on the seemingly infinite significance and power of this apparently unattainable concept.

If one thousand different people were randomly stopped on the street and asked to describe the meaning of love, one thousand different explanations would be given.

Throughout history many people have died and killed in the name of love. A fanatic takes his twisted version of love and attaches it to a perceived just cause. This usually results in great suffering. Martyrs will selflessly sacrifice themselves at any and every opportunity in order to prove themselves worthy of love. Incidentally, a martyr can be any person who abandons the value of his or her own character to please another. As for the rest of us common folk, it seems that we more often than not use that little four-letter word to very efficiently persecute and hold ourselves back.

Love truly is a double-edged sword; we desire to be loved, but this frightens us. We desperately need love in our lives, however we do not feel that we can live up to love's standards. So life becomes a game of " come close to me, but not too close."

We try to purchase love, by acquiring the very best of material possessions the modern world can offer. We try to deceive love, by hiding who we truly are and by presenting a false image of what we think others would want to see. We try to impress love, by enduring tremendous stress and degradation of ourselves, in the pursuit of positions that give us a feeling of stature and self-importance among our peers, (the "I'm better than you syndrome"). We try to control love by forcing it onto ourselves and the people we feel should love us. All of these actions serve to diminish what was meant to be free flowing and unconditional. God understood this when he endowed mankind with his gift.

There have been times in the past when many of us have taken the chance of opening up for the possibility of love, only to have the door slammed, coldly in our faces. This is about the time when love becomes something to be mourned, and not celebrated for the truly remarkable gift that it is!

So what does love mean to you? How important is this tiny, four-letter word in your life? Do you embrace, or flee from this intensely subjective, and mysterious force?

In its simplest terms, love is the ultimate act of faith. It is not a belief, but a firm inner knowing of who we are, and what our place is in the universe. Love is

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