I love love :)

When I say "love" I don't just mean romantic love (although, that's really fantastic!). I mean all sorts of love. Love from my family, love from my old friends, love from my new friends, love from my almost-family, and most importantly, love from my God. Love makes me feel like I belong somewhere, and like I have value as a person. To me, it also means trust. I can't love someone if I don't trust them. I know that's not the same for everybody, but I feel like that's generally true. I did one of those word search things on Facebook the other day. You know, "look at this word search, what words do you see first?" kind of things.  You know what I saw? "LOVE, FAMILY, and KNOWLEDGE." If that doesn't define a large part of me, I don't know what would.
So yes, love is a big deal. It's not something to ever be trivialized. You shouldn't say it just to get out of trouble, and it should never be reduced to a simple "Love ya!" as you're running out the door. If you truly love someone, take the time to tell them, in whichever you can.
This brings me to love languages. There are five of them, actually. Did you know that? Gary Chapman wrote a whole book about them (visit the site at 5lovelanguages.com). The different types of love are:
Physical Touch: hugging, handholding, etc.
Words of Affirmation: Praise, compliments, simply saying "I love you," or "I appreciate you."
Quality Time: Kind of obvious, but let me just say that there are different kinds--it's not always sitting in the same room watching TV together. Yes, you can do that sometimes, but make sure you do things one-on-one, where all your attention can be focused on the other person.
Gifts: Again, kind of obvious. Giving gifts is how you best display your love. It might not be fancy jewelry or expensive perfume, or other pricey things. It could just be a little something you say on your way home from work or class you thought the other person might like.
Acts of Service: Doing the dishes, washing the laundry, taking out the trash. Little things like that can scream "I LOVE YOU!"

Now, you don't have to be solely one category. I know I'm not! I receive (and give) love through Words of Affirmation, and I most certainly give (and sometimes receive) love through Physical Touch. Quality Time is important too, but I'd rather have someone hug me or tell me they love me than JUST spend time with me.

So the moral of this post is LOVE! Love with everything you have, because THAT'S the legacy you want to leave behind. My grandfather just passed away recently, and over all of the teasing and the funny stories, there's this aura of love. He just loved everyone, and that's what I want to be like. I want everyone to remember me for my unconditional love.