What is love?

There is a Dee-Lite song titled, "What is Love?" and while I am absolutely sure, for those of you who know the song, that my parents would NOT like the song, the question is a valid one, what is love?

As children we are taught about the fairy tales, and believe that some day our prince will come.  He WILL have a white horse.  He WILL have our glass slipper.  There will be a fairy Godmother who will turn our old dirty regular clothes into a beautiful ball gown, and yes, oh yes, there WILL be a ball, and our prince will glide us across the floor while music surrounds us like a cocoon.  He will wake us from our slumber with one single kiss, slay our dragons, and we will live happily ever after. 

My parents truly got their fairytale.  My mother's prince did show up.  He was dashing and gallant but he totally bummed a ride on her horse.  There was no glass slipper, because hippies would want to conserve the water used for the glass to ensure safe drinking water was available for all of God's children, but there was a dress - no puffed sleeves or oriental silk, but rather empire waisted chiffon.  There was a ball, there were attendants and I'm sure music (albeit probably a Simon and Garfunkel song or Summerbreeze by Seals and Croft) that surrounded them like a cocoon as they glided across the dance floor.  AND they did live happily ever after. 

What the fairytale fails to tell you is happily ever after is a mindset, not a moment or state.  You don't get to glide across the dance floor for the rest of your life, but rather you have moments in life where the dance floor will appear and you will get to glide with your prince for a few moments.

Happily ever after in the real world is the make up after a fight.  It is the calm after getting a restless child down for the night.  It is the sigh of relief when you are told it is just a sprain, its not broken.  It is the phone call after a loved one has landed from a long flight over seas telling you they have arrived safely and the joy you fee when they tell you they will be coming home 1 day earlier.  It is the moment you find out your spouses cancer is in remission.  It is the brave face you put on when you find out their cancer is back.  It is supporting them at their parents funeral.  It is a family dinner.  It is the occassional dinner without children.  It is sharing the joy of a Grandchild's birth.  It is in going to church together.  Sharing the holiday's, sitting on the porch, the simple touch of one hand to the other communicating I understand, and the look in their eye that says, "I love you".  It is the comfort when the pain and tears can't be held back.  It is the solace and peace you find in them.  That is happily ever after.

My Grandma (some call her Duckie, she is my Mom's mom), has always said, "If you cut one, the other bleeds".  To me while gruesome in the visual, says it all.  That is happily ever after.  That is love. 

So what is love?  It is what we all seek, it is the fairytale, it is the happily ever after, it is my parents.