March 5: Why I Believe In Love by Francine Craft

I choose here to give my reasons for believing in love in its broadest parameters and not just romantic love, although I believe in that with all my heart. My reasons for believing so deeply are fourfold:

l) Love Heals. We all smile to see a hurt child come to a parent to kiss its boo-boo when it hurts. And the child is nearly always smiling in a short while. I am like that too. We get emotional boo-boos also as long as we live and we all know how good it feels to get sympathy and empathy when we do. The healing power of love is part of every major religion on earth. And nothing heals like the magic of romantic love. I've never caught a cold when I was in love. Have you? I'll bet not. There's something about love that gets in your blood, the marrow of your bones and sticks there. You feel stronger, livelier, warmer, more in tune with life. All these facets of life help us to heal and moreover serve to make and keep us healthy.

2) Love Inspires. Consider the creation of a symphony. a book, a play. Where do you think the inspriation for same comes from? I'm certain it springs from deep-seated and abiding love of self, humanity, and the world we live in. Who hasn't thrilled to one of Beethoven's finest and felt his heart nearly burst with pleasure. Who hasn't read poems with lovers and felt the mellow glow of the poet's inspired words? And this is not just with creation for entertainment. Love inspires us to be better people, do more intricate and loving things. With love, we create a beloved atmosphere for ourselves, those we love, and for all others. What else can fill our hearts the way love does? Nothing inspires the way romantic love inspires. We can be, do, and have what we want to be, do, and have. Oour heart's desire is ours when we're in love. Little else can match it.

3) Love Gives Hope. Our world sometimes seems to abound with hopelessness and we feel it in our bones as a dreary world. Ah, but let us let ourselves love and there's all the hope in the world. We know that as long as there's life, there's hope, but we have all felt the surge of hope that comes with loving well. I believe romantic love carries a huge bonus of hope. Who's never been in love and felt able to fly it feels so good. We seldom feel down when we're in love and when we do, so often a loved one's kiss or touch can lift us again. Love and hope are inextricable. We can't have one without the other. I believe that's why romantic love has held throughout the ages and those cultures that believe in it are the most creative with the best in the arts.

4) Love Is Life. If love and hope are inextricable, love and life are equally bound up with each other. We possibly don't think about it enough, but lives are saved every minute with the power of love. A noted psychiatrist found that babies who were well fed and physically quite comfortable, but where there was little or no time for cudding sickened and died. We know about Romeo and Juliet's sad and ill-fated passion, but love saves far more often than it destroys. Nothing could be more life-affirming and giving than romantic love with its heights of passion and its deep desire for what's best for the loved one.

We owe so much to love and I, for one, am forever trying to repay that debt. If love didn't exist, whatever would take its place? What else could give us the joy, the courage, the delight? What else could fill our hearts the way love does?

About Francine Craft:

Francine Craft likes to regard herself as positive, low key and down to earth. She is a whole earth lover and finds most of earth's wonders fascinating. She has her depressed periods, but often finds her mind is just withdrawing to get some new story firmly in mind.

Francine says she is a romance writer to the bone because she believes romance should be fundamental in any life. When she hears people scoff at romance novels, she thinks of Daphne du Maurier and Mary Stewart and knows these critics are way off base. The novels these women wrote continue to be some of the world's most entertaining and rewarding.