Love

Love is gentle and kind
nurturing and supportive
Love is boundaries
and discipline
and loving expectations
Love is forgiving
Love is being willing
to know the story 
underneath the story
Love is understanding
Love is partnership
and limits and compromise
Love is its own force
sometimes carrying us to places
we never knew existed
Love is complicated
Love is a choice and a commitment
Love, lasting love, changes you
burns away selfishness
requires surrender to something greater
Love creates its own space
you can feel it 
when you walk into a home
or a garden
or any place where love is central
Sometimes love asks of us
more than we want to give
Love can't be lost
Love can be transformed
but love never really dies
When all else is washed away
love remains
if we but open ourselves
and surrender
to its healing force