The Four letter word.....LOVE

So LOVE, what's it all about?
Well it's not about the money, money money. Although we all love money don't we?
But what do we mean by love money? Is it the power it gives us for all of five minutes when its in our pockets, wallets or purses and then gets spent on that nice take away or beautiful dress we thought was a bargain?
Or is it the power it gives us to spend, spend, spend and shop till our mouths drop when we read our bank balances after that heavy shopping spree?
Or is it the thought that we only appreciate the value of money when we have it, thinking about what the value of money means is almost like trying to answer the question of what's the meaning of life - but don't worry I'm not about to get philosophical yet, I'll save that for another blog.
So LOVE, well there are all kinds of love, there is self love, family love, real love, relationship love, love of chocalate love of money and unconditional love.  Ok there are lots of different types of love.
Let's focus on one type of love for the moment. Yes you've guessed it - relationship love.
With the passing of Valentine's Day, yes I know it was only a few months ago when gentlemen were checking their wallets for that all-expensive date or all-expensive girlfriend or making eyes at the beautiful girl on the dance floor, just hoping she'll come over to say Hi.
Just what does love mean and how does it feature in personal relationships with another person.  Ok so we have self love and that involves taking care of ourselves and respecting ourselves but what about the respect and taking care of someone else.  Once we are committed and married to that one person, do we suddenly feel that we don't have to work at the relationship anymore or should it be that everyday you should rekindle that fire, that passion, that ripple in the ocean to show your partner you really care, or should the 'I love you's ' be only saved for Valentines Day?
No! Love shoule be shown everyday whether we show it to ourselves or our loved ones it shouldn't just be Valentines Day or just birthdays or special occasions either.  Everyday is the best way to show our love to our loved ones.
But what if we don't really know love and we hear our partner say 'I love you'.  For every action there is a reaction so is it just reaction to say ' I love you' back or is it just a natural reaction to say 'I love you' back.  Some people say its a big lie to say ' I love you'. But sometimes its just a human emotion, and when people say it they either really mean it or don't mean it at all.
In a relationship love is unconditional, its not fair for example if your loved one is saying to you, 'But if you loved me you'd do this for me'. Correction! Love is not something you use to get someone to honour your requests or use to get that person to your way of thinking.  Yet I'm sure its happened to some of us right? Yes it has. But remember there are loves gained and loves lost, but there is always a love that stays deep within us and never goes away.  That is self love, respecting and taking care of ourselves. Sometimes it starts with a love so innate so deep inside ourselves to actual come out to love someone else.
So lets revert back to the love of money. Why do we love money? or hate it? it's like marmite isn't it - you either love it or you hate it.  but its not love if when you don't have money then you think you hate it.  Consider this then that if your loved one goes away on a business trip - you don't then start hating them do you? No because absence makes the heart grow fonder but not with money. So isn't it time to start thinking about love of money in the sense that if the absence of money is not making you love it when it is not there then why is it making you love it when it is there. Confusing I know.  But many of the greatest survivors on this earth and in history have survived without a penny! Some of the greatest entrepreneurs to date started with a penny but the one thing to remember is this: Love of money can destroy us if we love it too much, because for some of us when money is not there, it puts us in a dangerous liasion with ourselves. I think its time that  we all stopped to think about love of other people and not just ourselves.  They say money is at the root of all evil.  If we could all stop hating one another and fighting wars with one another over the sake of money or money producing attributes then maybe there would be such a thing as World Peace.  There is too much fighting going on in the world, yet there is no one throwing money at the situation to make world peace is there? Until we learn to respect each other and love one another then we will find the answer to world peace.
So LOVE whats it all about.  I shall spell it out for you.

Learn from others
Overcome hatred
View with a heart other people's lives
Expect beautiful and wonderful things when the former 3 things afforementioned are put into practice.

LOVE - its the four letter word, and love conquers all.