“Looking for love in all the wrong places…” the words to that old country song came back to me while contemplating this post.
Some thought provoking quotes from one of my favorite authors on the subject –
Merle Shain. From When Lovers Are Friends. “Very few of us are tough enough to be soft.”
Sometimes we don’t recognize love when we see it. Do you know someone who is strong enough, and loves fierce enough to fight for truth and yet their kindness is just as obvious? You feel the love radiating from them and if you stand there, it can fill you up.
“There are many sources of friendship which we reject, many potential friends who we don’t see, and hence there are many ways of enriching our lives which we overlook, many sources of love which we turn down.”
Do you turn from love because it’s not the right ‘kind’ of love, not what you expect, not what you were taught love IS?
“Friends are people who help you be more yourself, more the person you are intended to be, and it is possible that without them we don’t recognize ourselves, or grow to be what it is in us to be. Our lives are in fact many lives, and we can all be much more than we are, so there cannot be any doubt that the secret of who we become is whom we meet along the way.”
Often caring friendships will carry you further and more securely than the kind we bet our futures on, rejecting them in hopes of THE ideal.
What’s the best kind of love – romantic love? A friend’s love? A child’s love? Familial love? Fido’s love?
From Courage My Love, Merle Shain quotes Mignon McLaughlin, “No one ever loved anybody like everybody wants to be loved.” And Shain says, “We expect a lot from love– often a lot more than we expect of ourselves.”
What is this thing we call ‘love’ that we look for outside ourselves? How does someone ‘prove’ their love? Why is that necessary? Do we concentrate as much on proving ourselves as we expect from our significant others?
“People who are always trying to make the perfect choice, rejecting what they have for what they hope to find, bet the present on the future and end up missing both…
It is easy enough to love the one who got away or the one we never got, the real trick is to love ourselves enough to let someone know who we really are, and to pay them the same respect…
There isn’t a perfect person somewhere, only a more perfect person we might become. You can think you must look still for the perfect one, or that the best one got away, or that love is a fraud and a failure and that you want it not, or that everything went wrong because your mother didn’t love you, but the one you wait for is yourself.”
There was never a truer word spoken.
Love is all around us, from friends, family and strangers. It may not be everywhere; it may not be constant; and it may not be a guarantee, but in our giving of ourselves we find it. In our acceptance of someone else, we find it. And maybe when we stop trying so hard to find IT, love finds us.
What does ‘love’ mean to you? Is it really about diamonds, jewelry or even chocolate? Is it about happy endings? Or is it about BEing, giving, and sharing happiness.
Maybe we could learn to be a love tree, ever blooming, forever tapping deep into the roots of love wherever we find it.
Title: Men of Honor Boxed Set : Ridge, Luc and Nick
Author: Livia Quinn
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense, Military Romance
Book Blurb:
For love and country. . . The Men of Honor heroes are part of a large extended military family and encompasses themes of family, love, and their passion for making a difference. Descriptions of the series include contemporary romance, military romance, love at first sight and small town romance, romantic suspense and second chance at love. Ridge “Take ‘em off, Tucker. Tucker. Tucker…” Ridge Romano is an inventor, Ranger, mentor, the consummate planner. So how did he wind up on stage in nothing but his trousers and tie beside two cover models, with a hundred women screaming at him to take it off? It seemed like a recipe for harmless fun. One curious CEO follows a gorgeous redhead onto the conference floor. Add a hundred romance writers at a "meeting". Toss in some false assumptions. Throw out a lifetime of good behavior and Ridge is up to his Special Forces tattoo in manure. Now to make sure no one finds out… Luc Larue knows how it looks when the sexy cop and her partner respond to a silent alarm at the grocery where he stopped for a six-pack. Luc’s job with KPI requires certain…attire and equipment.
The tall, dark and deadly looking mercenary Delilah Burke confronts at the robbery scene is sexy as sin, but is he a hero or a con? Then, trouble arrives from his past and Del is faced with a choice to believe the evidence against Luc, or trust her heart. Nick What happened? He’d been dodging the lightning, fighting the wind and rain, looking for a place to hide…when he’d seen the faint glow in the distance. There was no answer at the door so he’d broken in, entered… and there she was, a beautiful Valkyrie. Wielding her sword, she screamed as she struck him—for no good reason—and then everything went black. Everything. Themes included disadvantaged teens, teencenter, wounded hero, veterans, amnesia in the storm, clairvoyance and undercover danger.
Buy Links:
Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/menofhonor
Author Biography:
As a teenager in DC, Livia tagged along with her Daddy to Redskins games and explored the rich history of our country. Then she moved to the bayous of Louisiana where the weather and culture of this region inspired her writing, including her storm faerie, Tempest, and her military heroes.
Livia’s many jobs as mail lady, salesperson, plant manager, business owner and professional singer are the conduit her characters have used to relate their stories to her. Think of her as her characters’ biographer! Down by the bayou she is protected from the alligators and bears by her husband and feisty Pomeranian, Dusty. Sign up for her quarterly newsletter to get news and prizes http://eepurl.com/W94bb Stumble into love… when you least expect it...
Destiny Paramortals: Readers say “It’s like a mini-vacation from the real world.” “Run don’t walk to the buy button.”
Men of Honor: Duty. Honor. Country. Community. “I cannot give this book enough praise.” “Alpha hero, kick-ass heroine, creepy villain - what’s not to like?”
Social Media Links:
**Visit her website at www.liviaquinn.com **Visit her blog at www.liviaquinnwrites.com/livias-ramblings **Sign up for her monthly newsletter at http://eepurl.com/W94bb **Follow Livia on Facebook at https://www.Facebook.com/LiviaQuinnWrites
or Readers group https://www.facebook.com/groups/LiviaQuinnReadersGroup/
to chat about her books
**Follow her on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/LiviaQuinn View some of her story inspiration at www.pinterest.com/LiviaQuinn