Boring Love

I love you always and all ways. Over the years, I have intentionally developed a habit that is simultaneously annoying and wonderful. Admittedly, it’s mostly annoying. But, I love it.

And, I love you.

That’s my most annoying habit: I overuse the word LOVE. 

I love LOVE. I love the word. I love the vibe. 

I know most of the world believes love to be sacred and scarce. It’s a word best reserved for sonnets, ballads, and that one special person. I once believed that too.

I grew up surrounded by smart people who thoughtfully value the meaning of words. I respect the dictionary definition of the word LOVE:

“Love is an intense feeling of deep affection.” 

Intense means extreme and heightened. The word LOVE doesn’t quite fit in the boring, mundane existence of everyday life. 

I understand most people are reserved and guarded with the word LOVE. Forgive me, I am not.

I love LOVE. However, please never assume I use the word casually and without thought. I say LOVE with intention each and every time. 

LOVE with intention.

I experience an intense feeling of deep affection every time I type LOVE, write LOVE, and say LOVE. I love the vibe. 

I especially love saying the word LOVE in the most mundane moments. My family can be giving me a grocery list, and I’ll pepper in an opportunity to say I love you. The most routine actions spark my most momentous declarations of LOVE.

I say LOVE in the boring moments because I saw the play Our Town when I was a kid. Written in 1938, Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder, and it’s often called one of the greatest American plays ever written.

I found the play boring, but its message stuck with me:

We spend most of our life doing boring, everyday things. But, life is brief, and it is important we don’t waste it.  

Life is brief. Why wait to love, be loved, and express love?

I am not saving the word LOVE for only the intense, grand gestures. Most often, my life moves too fast to feel love and be loved. I need to love in the everyday moments, or I’ll miss it. 

I understand if you don’t share my love for LOVE. I don’t expect others to say the word as much as I do. I am fully capable of loving people more than they love me. 

That’s the true beauty of LOVE. It is a vibe, a feeling, a word that we can choose or not choose to give freely. I love my choice and I respect yours.

I overuse the word LOVE purposefully, abundantly, and especially in the boring moments. I feel the sacredness without the scarcity.

For me, life is love. 

And,

I love you always.