Nibblets: Love.

Thought I would share a lovely quote by Thomas Merton, made famous by Criminal Minds. I decided to see the quote in totality and amazingly, it is probably more meaningful than just the isolated first two lines found in the show. 

Love is our true destiny.
We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone— we find it with another.
We do not discover the secret of our lives
by mere study and calculation in our own isolated meditations.
The meaning of our life is a secret that is to be revealed to us in love, by the one we love.
We will never be fully real until we let ourselves fall in love….
Love is the revelation of our deepest personal meaning, value and identity.

Thomas Merton 

Merton himself was a priest that actually fell in love with a nurse whilst he was hospitalized, though he ultimately stayed through to his vows and had to give up the relationship. 

I love this quote. Of all the quotes in the world on love, I think this holds arguably one of the deepest meanings I have seen in a while. In this quote, love is not seen as a noble thing, it is not seen as something given and taken, it's qualities are not expounded. It simply states that the state of love is something that completes the human condition, it makes us fully human, so to speak. And because of that, because love is so powerful that is completes the human condition, it is through this completion that our deepest selves come forth, and life finds its true and complete meaning. Love is not about simply giving, it is about selflessly being the one that completes another.  

As we continue on this journey, the strength of this quote seems to stick with me more. Maybe it would lose its relevance to me, or its impact to me, someday, but for now, it is the creed that I adopt as we move together towards a life together. 

Thank you for saying yes.