Broken, but securely bandaged

Seems like the topic of love has come up alot lately -- friends, family, even casual aquaintences. Is there such a thing as that all-consuming passion? That mad love?

I was, what I thought, madly in love once. In retrospect, I don't know if it was so much love, but it was certainly mad.

When you are consumed by someone, they literally eat you alive, twist you in knots, pull your strings, wrangle your emotions. I was oblivious of anyone else, job, family, nothing else competed.

The irony was that while I was mad, he was not. He eventually ended it. I was broken-hearted but survived. I was convinced I woulld never be that passionate again and for the most part I was right.

While it was the emotionally trying time of my life, it was a great learning experience. I learned that true, enduring love is respectful, kind, willing to compromise, attentive but not smoothering, but most importantly, it knows it's place. One relationship has two people, and never the twain are divided.

Unfortunately that wide-eyed, bated-breath version of love has been perptuated through years and years of ridiculous teen romances. It seeps into a young girls skin until you believe that Ferris Bueller is really looking at you when he looks directly at the camera -- or whatever.

Even love that begins with that passion eventually settles into embers. Nice warm, snuggly, ugly pajamas and morning breath embers. And that is worth it.