What is love to you? Is it part work and part bliss? Or is love all bliss or all work? I can imagine based on our different experiences with love and relationships we can all have very different views and responses to our take on love. This poem was written some years ago when my husband and I were fairly early in our dating. We were passed the honeymoon phase and in the phase of really getting to know one another. The phase of "I really care about you, but I'm not going to be timid about what I say in your presence and I am going to reveal who I really am to you." I call this the work phase. The time in a relationship where we take our mask off! Some relationships don't make it further than this phase. However, unveiling your mask requires trust, acceptance, a non-judgmental attitude, honesty, compromise, faith, and most importantly love. During this time my now husband revealed to me that "as long as the good out weighed the bad" that he was going to keep doing the work to get to the bliss.

LOVE

(Originally written February 27, 2008)

What is love? Does anyone really know?

We all have our own definitions, interpretations, our expectations

Expecting that this one person meet all of our relational needs

Or at least most of them

We communicate our needs verbal and non

And expect our partner to address them in the long run

We compromise, we negotiate

And expect that he/she may deliver on the correct date

I recently heard that love is part bliss; love is part work

Are they equal?

Or is one more dominant than the other?

I seek the answers

But not by asking my brother or mother

But by being open to something so new

Something that I’m willing to experience

With someone special….like you

I am not perfect

I may not be pure

But love is something that creates

times we both must endure

I am sure

But are you?

There are times that your focus

seems to take a turn

This leaves me to question

What did I do wrong?

Is this the work that leads to the bliss?

The bliss that spends more time giving a kiss for a kiss, an I miss for your Mrs.

In the end I’m left with no specific answers to my questions

I simply realize love is all about the seconds

The seconds we spend making each other happy

Smiling, laughing, and planning for our future

My heart is in it that’s for sure

So I do the work with the bliss in store.

As I stated this poem was written back in 2008. God revealed to my husband and I early on in our relationship that we were to be married to one another. My husband says that he knew when we met that I was to be his wife. God told me that I was to be My husband's wife before I even loved him. Those words told me that I had to take a leap of faith and unveil my mask early; that I could not play the typical dating game with this man. I'm grateful that I listened and walked in faith. Unveiling your mask is challenging, especially when you've been hurt in the past. However, not showing the one you love who you really are is only cheating yourself out of knowing what it's like to have someone love you unconditionally for who you really are. Loving someone's façade may be easy, but loving the real person is the work that leads to the bliss. May you find trust and faith to unveil your mask to the one that really deserves who you really are. I wish you love, peace, joy, and BLISS!