Writing about love

Writing about love: There is no more powerful emotion or force in the world, I believe, than love. I'm talking about real, committed, dedicated, chosen love. There is something spiritual and captivating about real love. I wish I could tell you how to write about it. I wish I knew more about how to express its power and wonder. But, on the Valentines day, I simply present two examples.

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..."
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

And another powerful statement of love...from

I Corinthians 13

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I
reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

On this day when people celebrate love it is my hope that you and I as writers will help this world experience greater and purer love -- not just toward those near to us, but that each and every one of the six billion people on this planet may enjoy a life where love comforts in times of trouble, where it lifts spirits in times of grief, where it settles disputes in times of anger and where it brings salvation to all who embrace it.