“Love is putting another person before yourself. Love means doing what's best for the other person, no matter what it means for you. Love is always there. Time can only strengthen love. You can only love someone else if they allow you to and it applies to yourself. To be loved, you must place trust in another person.”

“They say that whatever is meant to be will happen. That if a love is true, it will always come back to you. Bullshit. You can't wait around for love to come back or for something to happen. You have to make it happen. Have you ever heard of someone accomplishing their dreams by waiting around because 'what is meant to be will happen'?No.Those people fought for what they wanted and loved. They didn't lean back and wait for their dreams to come rushing at them. Each and every one made their dream come true. They found love because they were searching for it. They didn't let anything get in their way. Every day for the rest of mylife, I will fight for my love and my dreams. I will work to make things stick together instead of working to make them fall apart.”

“Love can either heal or destroy. Love is so powerful that it can sweep you up like a leaf in the wind. Up and down, twirling here and there. Hitting objects that stand in the way, making you stronger.And sometimes a hand catches the fragile leaf and crushes it. Love is beautiful as well. That hand couldcatch that leaf and hold it like a baby bird. Stroke it with care. Love is powerful. A lesson I will never ever forget.”

“A deep love resides inside each of us. This love is independent of the desires, thoughts, and opinions, good or bad, which are readily offered to us. It is a love that is gentle and kind, accepting and nonjudgmental, playful and spontaneous, courageous and curious. It is always encouraging and always evolving. This love can be discovered only through turning off the noise around us, coming to ourselves in silence, meditation, and prayer. If we listen carefully we will hear the murmurs of our inner voice tell yearnings of our truest selves. What is available to us is a profound understanding, appreciation, and full acceptance of self, all of the good and all of the bad. Only when we truly know that we are able to tap into this part of ourselves can we begin to love others fully. Love for others is the manifestation of love for self. We cannot love another more than we love ourselves. Life is a mirror. If you want to know what love for yourself looks like, look at your love for others. If you want to know what your love for others look like, look at your love for self. When you love yourself this way, you love God this way. This relationship is the divine love triangle; self, God, and others in any order.”

“Emily leans forward and gives me a kiss. Through the kiss, she shows me her love. I show her my love and excitement for our future. She is mine and until she didn’t want me, she always would be.”

“What I do think is that we have to take what happens and learn from it and make ourselves a better person because of it.”

“Before you can express love, you must find love. You must know love within yourself before you can express it. You must love yourself before you can give it to another.”