Illustration by Lourdes Aguirre

Love is the easiest concept to grasp, yet also complex in its universal way. Its meaning goes beyond the dictionaries in the library and the storybooks read to young children.

It’s more than knowledge; it also demands that our hearts be open and that we risk vulnerability. Living through the experience of love, you realize it’s in what we have seen with our own eyes, heard with our ears, and felt with every inch of our skin.

Indeed, it is found.

In our parents’ embrace on the day we were born, with their arms filled with warmth. As friends, we can exchange inside jokes, lighting up the room with laughter and smiles. In old couples happily eating together at a fast-food chain, as the husband still compliments his wife on how beautiful she is. As a soulmate who completes us in presence and in our sentences, who races our heartbeat once again. Or in the very enjoyment of our own silence and solitude, breathing in the quiet early mornings with a cup of coffee.

It can be formed.

When we create unbreakable bonds that become inseparable, spending time with them makes us the happiest person alive. When we become each other’s shoulder to cry on during our own rough patches, letting each other know that we are fighting alongside them. When we squeeze in a few hours of our schedule to catch up and get away from the realities of the world for a little while. Or when we learn how to face the mirror and love every imperfect part of ourselves, realizing that imperfections make us the perfect human.

And it can be shaped.

By learning to love the many versions of them we witness as we grow closer together, setting aside our pride and understanding each other’s differences. By being able to. By being the push we need to become better versions of ourselves, going through the hardest conversations and the heaviest changes. By the smallest and biggest gestures, from giving them a bouquet of flowers to writing a letter filled with heartfelt, pure expressions of our love.

Love not only exists as a word but also in the life surrounding us with hope, in the people who surround us with endless support and love, in the person who never thought to let go of your hand, and within our own willingness to see past our insecurities and see the kind of beauty we bring into the world.

Article by Ann Adona