What LOVE Really Is




	I love you not only for who you are,
	but for who I am when I am with you.
	I love you not only for what
	you have made of yourself,
	but for what you are making of me.
	I love you for the part of me
	that you bring out.

	I love you for putting your hand
	into my heaped-up heart,
	and passing over
	all the foolish, frivolous, weak things
	which you can't help dimly seeing there,
	and for drawing out into the light
	all the beautiful, radiant belongings,
	that no one else
	had looked quite far enough to find.

	I love you for ignoring the possibilities
	of the fool and weakling in me,
	and for laying firm hold
	on the possibilities of good in me.
	I love you for closing your eyes
	to the discords in me,
	and for adding to the music in me
	by worshipful listening.

	I love you because
	you are helping me make
	of the lumber of my life
	not a tavern - but a temple,
	and of the works of my every day
	not a reproach - but a song.

	I love you because you have done
	more than any creed could have done
	to make me good,
	and more than any fate could have done
	to make me happy.
	You have done it without a touch,
	without a word, without a sigh
	You have done it by just being yourself.
	Perhaps that is what love really is.


	~ Jeremy Taylor ~