Ugly Love

   Hello! My name is Love! I am everywhere. You may have noticed me in the glistening eyes of the young couple, in the demure face of the beaming bride and in the sweet sleep of a newborn. I am brilliant, enchanting, seductive and mysterious. I am the stuff hope is made of. I am the essence of all that is beautiful to the human heart. I am the invisible substance that every person longs to embrace, experience and possess. Nothing can really compare to me. I stand alone in my power. I reach to the highest pinnacle of human idealism; however, my greatest power is that I also sink to the lowest depths of earthly despair. I am not as easily recognized in the lowlands of the human experience. I don’t look so beautiful when I am contained in the heaving chest of a patient wife, or in the silent resolve of the committed husband. I no longer seem so attractive when the hands that hold me are arthritic and trembling. I can seem downright ugly when I stand in the midst of bellowing pain and hurt, feeling the whip of injustice tear into my soul, yet I remain. I am manifested in the blood on the hands of the rescuer, the fear in the eyes of the kind confronter, the sweat on the brow of the struggling provider and the bloodshot eyes of the vigilant parent. Contrary to popular belief, I am not always lovely- sometimes I am downright ugly- standing there quite disheveled in my tattered apron of reality. Often I find myself covered in the blood, sweat and tears of the lover. The greatest example of this was when I hung on a Cross. I am not the stuff that movies are made of but rather the stuff that moves people to believe that life is worth living- that there is always hope. I am Love!

Photo credit: By Louise Docker from sydney, Australia (My heart in your hands) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons