LOVE, actually

While reading romance novels may not be good for the soul of a single, lonely woman, they had the oddest effect on me: they made me realize that there are 3 things I want to be able to say to that perfect knight that I’m sure will ride into my life on his white stallion (feel free to laugh it out right now, for what I say next is quite serious) - 'I love you. I trust you. I support you. Not necessarily in that order :)'. I need this 3 simple things in order to be happy with my relationship. In truth, I need to relate to almost anybody on those presumptions - my family, my friends, my colleagues, my neighbors, the girl who bags the groceries at my supermarket.

For love is not only romantic love, but also the care towards our parents, siblings and extended family, the strong bond of a true friendship, the respect and care for those who work with you and can receive and provide help.

Trust - this should probably go unexplained, but what the heck - is also the trust you implicitly give to all the other drivers when you start your car in the morning, the trust you put into the cook at your favorite restaurant that they will deliver a good and healthy meal or into the officer checking your backpack when boarding a plane that they will keep you safe.

Support - this may prove to be a tricky one, but my way of extrapolating it is, that, apart from trusting the people around you with their respective responsibilities, you should also encourage (thus prooving your support) them when they do a good job. [I am a carrot type of person (clue: motivational theories in plain words), and I find it difficult to strongly reprimand someone, even when they systematically butcher a perfectly simple task. I prefer the talk-it-over approach, give them the tools to unmake their mistakes and they will, hopefully, eventually succeed.]

So, you see, my whole world can be reduced to those 3 little words - love, trust & support.

Since my horoscope told me this is the year to simplify, I see this epiphany as the first step towards that :D

Oh, and in a more down to earth note - since we are in between the two LOVE holidays of the year (I’m counting the Dragobete, for those who prefer it), I had the opportunity to skip through or out-right ignore a lot of articles published about Valentine Day gifts this past week. Not one of them - and trust me, there were all over the world wide web - mentioned what I truly wanted on February the 14th - a wee push when my car got stuck in the snow!