~Kaka Lucas, 20th June 2022

Love is a complex topic in our world today. It can be defined as a mix of emotions, and behaviors. Love is believed to be associated with strong feelings of affection, protectiveness, warmth, and respect for another person.

I know you are getting goosebumps because you have had those experiences. Just smile and continue reading.

Love can also apply to animals, principles, and religious beliefs. For example, a person might say he or she loves his or her cat, snake, or tortoise. Others would say how much they love freedom or love God, as you and I do.

There are some definitions of love that work with me. These include:

• A willingness to prioritize another’s well-being or happiness above your own.
• A fleeting emotion of care, affection, and like.
• A choice to commit to helping, respecting, and caring for another, such as in marriage or when having a child.

There are places we go and we can tell we are not welcomed. We are not the first because even Jesus, who is known to be Lord and Savior of the world, was also made unwelcome in the Samaritan village (Luke 9:51-62).

There are people we meet in life and our spirits do not take to each other. You may not be the first one because, I also have had the same experience. We are not the first I guess, and we may never be the last. What can make a difference though is that, we stand out and act differently when this lack of love energy comes our way.

Over the past three weeks, I have experienced love in a different way. I was let to go driving for two hours all by myself. I know you are wondering how a big boy can be asking permission to go out. Yes, I do ask and I expect either of the four answers: OK, WAIT, NOT NOW or LATER.

A day after I came back from the brief vacation, I was taken to a villa. The villa was by the beach. It was beautiful and relaxing. There was a cook, and the fridge was well stocked with all that I may have needed.

It was a week after my stay at the villa that I accompanied one of my sisters who was migrating to the airport. At the airport, I pretended to be the big boy of the family along with her friends. But the big boy turned out to be the baby boy. He broke down. She started crying from the time she hugged her mommy. During this time, I tried being the brave one. I patted their backs and assured them all was going to be well. By the time we got to the departure area it was only me and her and our friends. We hugged tight. She started sobbing, and she spoke to me as a baby sister would do to her brother. She sobbed and I sobbed a little bit. The other travelers who were beside us were looking at us and wondering how this bearded boy was shedding tears like the river Nile. I looked at them with a slight smile and said, ‘the AC is affecting me’, but, to be truthful, it was the love that was making me shed tears.

The following day after this sister left, another sister came to visit me. She migrated a few years ago and even though she visited twice, this time I was excited because we had both made significant advancements in our lives. I had graduated from university and I was where I prayed to be, and she had a new job and a new car, and was now a little happier and independent as we December guys always wanted to be. Even though I was still broken by the other sister’s departure, her arrival masked my sadness. She took me on a short two days’ vacation, where I, among other things, played with dolphins for almost an hour. This was love bubbling over and I was grateful for that.

Looking back, I wish this past weekend could be repeated, but it’s okay, the experience was intense so I think that I may not forget it.

Love is more than the red roses and milk chocolate that we share on Valentine’s day. Love is more than dinners, breakfast, lunch, and snack dates – if they still exist. Love is more than the road trips we make and the drink stops and jerk centers along the North Coast.

Love is when we cannot find the words to define the feeling, and the feeling that we feel is saying loudly, “I want nothing more”. Love is so visible and tangible that you sometimes feel it more or less but you still feel it. I am convinced that true love has no clear definition. As we would say here in Jamaica, “I feel some”. This ‘some’ is what words cannot really define. The ‘some’ stands for something, but this something has no words exactly to explain the feeling. Do not take me wrongly, the definition of love exists, but my experience was too much to explain. At one point when the dolphins were pulling me, I could feel every part of me clapping with excitement.

Love is just there. It is tangible sometimes. Other times, it is very visible with our naked eyes. Sometimes, love is visible but intangible, while other times, it can be tangible but not visible. This is when we reach a point where we lift our hands and just hug the air with a big contented smile. And, at other times we may close our eyes tight because, we do not for one second, want to lose sight of the love feeling. They say closing the eyes saves us from looking at any distracting blur. That is how much I felt loved.

When last did you experience, TRUE, GENUINE & HONEST Love?

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