Love makes the world go round; it sustains and nurtures us. It is the focus of love songs, letters and poetry and many, many fine quotations.

This post, and next week’s also, will focus on seven wonderful love quotes, which I hope you may find uplifting and sustaining during the weeks and months of this pandemic.

Klimt. The Kiss. Wikimedia Commons.

Quote 1. “Love is really the only thing we can possess, keep with us, and take with us.”

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

This powerful quote emphasises the reality of life and death. It underlines the fact that love is the only ‘possession’ that we have and the only one we can take with us when we die. 

During this pandemic, many people have come to realise that they value love above all other aspects of their lives.

The more superficial needs, for beauty treatments, holidays, glitz and celebrity, fashion items, hairdressers, meals out, clothes, etc may all be gratifying in some ways, according to people’s individual tastes.

Ultimately, however,  they have been shown to be dispensable in this time of real crisis.

What have been important are NHS medics and nurses, frontline staff, volunteers, scientists, cleaners, delivery people and many more who care for the sick and the needy.

Xenia Hausner – Pure Cool. Gandalf’s Gallery, Flickr.

Quote 7

“‘There’s too much risk in loving,’
the young boy said,
‘no,’
said the old man,
‘there’s too much risk in not.’ “

Atticus Poetry

The risks of love;
Love is
throwing yourself into a stormy sea
hoping there are arms to catch you
knowing that without the leap
there is only the safe
and lonely shore.

Atticus Poetry.

These two quotes, both on the theme of the risks of love, remind us of how important it is sometimes to take calculated risks in life. The second poem, on the same theme, also reminds us that life will be risky if we do not love.

Having love in our lives does mean we expose ourselves to the possibilities of loss, grief, rejection, heartbreak and uncertainty.  

When love falls apart, we are left feeling broken and in pain. That is part of the risk of loving.

However, love may also mean that we can benefit from its rewards.

What are the rewards of love? What does love teach us and highlight for us?

• How we interact with others
• The areas of our own behaviour that need attention, highlighted through relating to those we love
• How to trust
• How to develop staying power and resilience even when things feel very difficult
• Conflict resolution
• Hope and faith in another
• How to take risks with another person

Unless we ‘throw ourselves into a stormy sea,’ as the poet says, we will never experience real connection with others, real relationships and the rewards these have to offer us. 

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I will end this post as it began, with this thought that, without love, ultimately we have nothing, especially in times of crisis, like a war or pandemic.

It is expressed in an extract from the beautiful poem Dover Beach, by Matthew Arnold.

"Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night."

 Dover Beach. Wikimedia Commons.
©Linda Berman

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