If someone were to ask me,
“What is the essence of love?”
I would answer:
It is the will.
Whether directed toward the Divine or toward another person,
love is the unwavering will to be present with the beloved.
There will be bright days,
but it is the will to embrace the trials
that inevitably come with companionship.
Even through the storms and blizzards
n all their varied forms and depths,
it is the will to stand firm, to protect,
and to remain by their side until the very end.
Therefore, for me, love belongs,
in its broadest and most ultimate sense,
to the realm of reasoned commitment.