Given any amount of thought, it is doubtful that anyone can deny that love is with
us from birth to death; that it is a factor in our well being in every stage of life.
That first wail at birth could just as well be a cry saying, “please love me”. When
death beckons we want the ones we love nearby to say our good-byes. In-between that
first cry and the last good-bye we experience an infinite array of love. The need
to love and be loved starts in a mother’s arms, perhaps even before, and then extends
to family in the first few years of a child’s life. There are friendships and later,
with the onset of puberty, affairs of the heart. And then there is all those other
loves that don’t include people, but carry with them their own special passion, which
could be for anything from sports to beetles.
The many aspects of love has been researched and documented by philosophers, scientists
and the medical community throughout the ages. What follows is not a scientific break-down.
It is instead one ordinary person’s observations of love’s impact as we make our
journey through life. Understanding the impact of love opens the door to understanding
the totality.
