‘What is Love Anyway, Does Anybody Love Anyway?’ Well known song, sung by Howard Jones in the early 90’s. Today the 14th of Feb 2006 marks the day of every year - Valentines Day! A day where love is to be celebrated, romance brought back to life. Romance can manifest itself in a number of delightful forms, such as meeting a new partner who makes your heart sing with excitement and passion, or a rejuvenation of a waning romance with a current love.I believe that romance is a state of mind, which involves playfulness and creativity. The problem is, most people don’t have the time, energy or motivation to create that state of mind anymore. Also, generally speaking, when involved in a long relationship, partners tend to take one another for granted, because the hunt/chase is over. Both parties have acquired the ‘hunted’ so to speak, so why the need to work further to maintain the burning passions?

However, without being romantic, the fire will soon start to die out, leaving nothing but silvery smoke which fades into thin air. But now love and romance are two separate entities. Two separate feelings, emotions. What is pure love? What is real and what is fantasy?

Love is the most powerful spiritual force in the world; it embraces within its sphere of radiation all the other positive qualities of the soul; namely, faith, hope, charity, kindness, patience, sympathy, forgiveness, unselfishness, courage. Among those of limited understanding, there is between bodies a sort of chemical affinity which draws one to another. This, in my opinion, is misconstrued as love. People may be attracted toward each other through the physical alone, through the mental alone, or only through the spiritual. When union takes place through only the senses or physical organism, the vilest passions of perverted nature counterfeit love and are soon expended in satiated desire. From this state, under the pressure of the accompanying passions of anger, jealousy and hatred, it is an easy step to tragedy and crime.

Love is absolutely unselfish and never binds its object. Love is a complete unity with life, and only as the soul becomes conscious of its ONENESS with all that lives, can it give expression to love that is genuine.

So true and pure love is about giving and lust is about taking, love is about sacrifice, its about making us grow and learn about humanity and mankind. Does anybody love anyway? In my opinion, not many people know the true meaning of love.