Love

When I was in college, my roommate Courtney and I developed a Like/Love-O-Meter. Essentially determining the difference between important emotions: like, Like, In-Like, love, Love, In-Love. We mainly used it to rank our feelings on the latest guys. While it was a superficial way for us to measure feelings, it has grown in meaning over the years.

So, as I was contemplating on my feelings as of late, I realized that the major deciding factor between the like and love emotions is the presence of a negative aspect. As evidenced by the following examples:

• I don't like roller coasters, I love roller coasters. The addition of anxiety and fear increases my emotional connection.
• I have loved working at my job. It has been in no way perfect, with lots of red tape and conflict, however, the good outweighs that. It's not just something I just like, but a greater emotion because of the hardships involved.
• I love peach ring candy. I love it because it is delicious and cheap. I love it because it is so sweet. I love it because it always seems to hurt my teeth when I have too many rings. Therefore, I can't have it too often, and I love it all the more.
• I like a sunny day. It's just a little too perfect to love. I love a rainy day, with the chance of getting wet, but the beautiful clouds and rainbows and smell of rain. I dislike a snowy day; there is no way anything positive could overrule the freezing cold and wet.

On a deeper note, my strongest relationships are with people I have had totally imperfect relationships with. I have grown and my love has grown as we overcome hard times together. We all go through hard times, but I feel so blessed that greater love can always be the outcome. We just have to choose to make that happen.