What is love?  Sure we have the happily ever after approach thanks to Walt Disney and other great cartoon movies that implanted within my young brain that true love conquers all.  What is love to me?  It is the kiss that turns the beast back into the prince.  It is the touch that brings a life back from the dead.  But most of all what is love?  It is something that most people on this earth will never feel in its most true and pure form.

Call me a hopeless romantic but I believe love can move mountains.  Thankfully I have a small amount of people in my life who are keeping my faith in true love going.  Don’t get me wrong I believe it is a lot harder than it used to be, however I refuse to give up hope.

I went to mass today for the first time in months.  Probably since my grandfather passed in November of 2012 now that I am thinking about it.  I’ve been lost since he left.  Sure I can say he was meant to go, God  needed him, it was his time yada yada… But when push comes to shove it sucks and he was the one man who could have defined love over and over again.

My grandfather loved unconditionally.  Taking care of my grandmother when she was terminally ill and most of the family believed all hope was gone.  With a little bit of faith, a ton of prayer and an incomparable amount of love, I honestly believed my grandfather fought for my grandmother to remain on this earth.

Why could we not do the same for him?  Was my love not enough?  This is something I ask myself more often than not lately.  I have prayed for love, comparing myself to Dane Cook in Good Luck Chuck.  Sure I am an awesome girl, guys fall in love with me, but its always a happily never after in the end for me as I watch them commit to a happily ever after with someone else.  Why?  Who knows.

I asked my grandfather a few weeks before he died why he was with my grandmother.  Was it because he loved her?  Sure he did.  She was the mother of his children, but was he passionately in love with her?  I really don’t know.  Personally I could not be with someone I loved.  I would need to feel a strong attraction to that person, a yearning to have them in my life 24/7.  There are so many people I have had in my life that I can say I have loved, and quite honestly there are only a few I have been in love with.  Watching my grandfather however over the past year proved to me that I need to find the person I can’t live without.  Living with someone and loving them is not enough.  True love is what every single individual deserves but not everyone believes in.

So what is love?  I believe there are two types.  There is the type that grows on you.  You meet someone, you date, things are working, developing, and naturally take its course.  Then there is the type of love that ignites in your heart and burns brightly.  You can never seem to get a hold of it because the flame is just too strong, yet the warmth seems to embody your entire soul.  This love if you ask me is rather rare because it takes a special person to trust it and live with it.

What is love?  Well for me I hope one day to find a happily ever after.  I hope to find a man like my grandfather.  One that no matter what puts me before himself, loves me unconditionally and above all respects me as a woman.  Don’t lose hope in love, I know times are rough for a lot of you who are choosing to read this article, however what I learned today is this:

Sometimes our faith, our hearts, are tested.  If you truly believe in something, whether it be love, a person, a career, a change, whatever, you will never question the way you feel.  Sure you can question whether or not it is right, are you going to get hurt and a 1,000 other things, but at the end of the day there is something inside of you that just tells you to believe.  What is love?  It’s believing that it’s out there and understanding what exactly you want from it.  Sometimes the other person may not want the same thing back.  That’s ok.  One day you will find someone who knows what you are worth, who looks you in the eyes and  makes you feel like you are the only person who has ever existed to their heart.  Do me a favor, do not settle for anything less than this.

Thanks Pop for giving me my greatest life’s lesson, true love only comes once in a lifetime, when it does go for it, have no regrets.  I live my life as best as I can and I miss you everyday.  Below is a clip from The Holiday, if you haven’t seen it check it out.  It is quite ironic and I believe almost everyone can relate to one of the scenarios when it comes to asking What Is Love?