Love. What a big word. Not in size so much as in its capacity. In some way, we can all relate to the abundance of love. The word is tossed around so much for just about anything and everything. We love our beds, our new house, the way the leaves outside our living room tickle the window in the evenings, and how quiet everyone gets right before they drop down the hill of a rollercoaster. The list goes on ad infinitum. Love seems to contain a relationship with nearly all things that conjure a heightened state of meaning to us.

And of course love is most associated with the feeling we have for another person. While it is simple to love inanimate objects, music, experiences and other unemotional aspects of life, loving another person is wholly unpredictable and is a merging of complexities often so profound that we scarcely can acknowledge all that is taking place in these interactions. Very much, I am still learning about love in its endless varieties and ways in which I express it, and that it is expressed to me. Currently, there is a stray cat that lives on the shared property where I live and he absolutely adores people, affably rubbing his worn coat on the legs of any passersby. Regardless of his love for people, he tends to quarrel with the other local cats and this makes it difficult for me to hold him in my heart. Yet recognizing that all of us, even animals, show love in our own ways, I don’t know the story of this little fella and should not let my judgement cloud the way he expresses love. So I’m doing my best to let go and love him for who he is.

All emotions live in the abundance of love. They are smaller versions of love if you will, that express the many nuances of love’s endless bounty. This may sound counter to how these expressions feel, but we do not know the many stories that have shaped each one of us individually and how we have learned about love. So when someone uses sharp words or abusive actions, it may relate to how that person learned about loving, even if unconsciously. All forms of love require time, patience and a willingness to let go of what we think love is and how it is perceived.

Music reveals many of the nuances of love by way of words and often unspeakably as well. Words are usually a guide to how the composer hopes her or his version of musical love finds it way to the ears of the audience. It may be a fast, passionate, and intense number or a tender, sweet and buoyant composition nestled lightly between those beholden. It assists in the understanding of our loves too many to be named, too complex to be qualified. I have surely taken up the subject in more than a few of my own songs and each one shares a different record of how love moved me at the time it was written. So with a love less prescribed and a heart more open, I appeal to you to take a moment the next time someone is revealing themselves to you, however large or small and consider the ongoing evolution of that person, how they are still learning about themselves and how they show love. They are but a sweet musical improvisation twisting and turning as they sail along the ocean of life and its many paths of love.

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Artwork: Edmund Thomas Clint
A marvelous young boy who returned to the stars while still very much in his innocence at age 7 and produced 25,000 paintings throughout his short life.

learn more: http://www.clintmemorabilia.org/