What is Love?

爱是什么？

What is Love? The eternal question we all carry around deep within our heart. Love is the eternal search. Love is eternal when we find it. But do we really ever find it ? When we define it do we negate it? When we set limits on what we believe to be love do we begin to destroy it by hoping to understand or own it for ourselves? We offer it through all of our relationship we vary our giving, often by what we hope to receive in return. But is this really love?

爱是什么？这是所有人心底一个永恒的问题。爱，是永恒的寻觅。爱一旦被找到，它也将变为永恒。但是我们真的找到过爱吗？当我们定义爱的同时，是否也在否定爱呢？在给我们所认为的爱加种种限制的同时，我们试图按自己的方式理解它，或想将其据为己有时，我们是否也在破坏它呢？我们将爱施与周围的所有人，而如何给予是由期望的回报来决定的。但这是真正的爱

I recently overheard someone say in a conversation that there is no such thing as “ unconditional love .” I would have to agree, although for different reasons. Love within itself is unconditional. Anything else is only an attempt to love, a learning to get us nearer to the one true knowing of love. It may be honorable, well-intentioned, passionate and desiring, courageous and pure. It may be felt as temporary, but if lost easily it may not have been love at all. Love cannot be thwarted and often fall short of what we hope love will be. This is where we learn we are human.

最近，我无意间听别人说，世上没有所谓的“无条件的爱”。在此，我不得不表示同意这一论断，尽管理由不尽相同，但爱本身确是无条件的。其他一切都仅仅是爱的一种尝试，通过它们去逐渐地理解爱的真谛。爱可能是高贵善意的，是充满热情和渴望的，是勇敢和纯洁的；爱情可能不是持久的，但假如轻易就会失去，那也许并不是爱；爱是势不可挡的，而且，常常达不到我们的期望值。由此我们可以透察人性。

Love has been experienced as having a life of living poetry. Love has been experienced as being the very notes of song, uplifting and generous to the wanting ear. Love has been experienced as the final act of giving one’s life for another in battle. Love has been experienced as choosing to give new life to another. Love has been experienced as an endless passionate over flow of emotion in the arms of waiting lover.

爱的经历就像一首鲜活灵动的诗；爱的经历就像一个个美妙动听的音符，让企盼的双耳得到振奋、满足；爱的经历就像战场上舍己救人的一幕；爱的经历就像赋予人新生的选择；爱的经历就像依偎在期盼已久的爱人臂弯时所流露出的无尽爱意。

What do you do with the love granted to you each day? How many times do we deny its expression for others because we fear what our own expressions will bring? Are we not denying our creator every time we deny the expression of love?

你是怎样对待每天给予你的爱的呢？有多少次由于害怕被拒绝，我们未能向他人表达爱意？在每次拒绝爱的表白之时，难道我们不是拒绝造物主的恩赐吗？

Lost, empty, alone and searching. As individuals who have experienced separation or divorce, or even the loss of a loved one to death, the separation can be the most traumatic experience we live through. The heart-wrenching pain that seems to never really go away, the enormous waves that hit us daily, the times we hit the wall right after a strong and uplifting experience reminds us that we are learning. We are learning about strength, passion for our own life, about our own sincerity in our beliefs, about our loyalty to who we are, and certainly about our own genuineness. We search for that day when love will come again. We search everywhere, everyday, almost every hour.

迷茫、空虚、孤独、寻觅。对于那些经历过分别、离异，甚至失去过爱人的人来说，这样的离别乃是生命中最大的伤痕。揪心的伤痛永无此境；生活中的挫折和磨难无时无刻不在提醒我们：我们正处于认知的过程中。我们正在认识自己生命的力量和激情，认识对信仰的虔诚，认识对自的忠贞，认识自己的本性。我们期待真爱重回的那一天，我们每时每刻都在每个角落寻觅。

It has been said for centuries that “ love is where the eyes meet with passion, for the eyes cannot hide what the heart feels.” So we have learned to look outward for this eternal love that will fulfill us, forgetting that it must first fill our own hearts. Perhaps that is why we fall into such pain and agony and sorrow when a love affair fails. It is at that moment that we realize we did not fail the other person we expressed love to , but we have somehow not fulfilled ourselves once again. We combat failure with a misunderstood unfulfilled promise. We lose it, not knowing if we will ever find it again. The emotion tides lift and fall ,crash and settle, then lift again.

几个世纪以来，我们一直说：“爱就是充满激情的目光相遇，因为眼睛掩饰不住内心的真实感受”。因此，我们都学会了向外看，去寻找那份永恒的能使自己充实起来的爱，却忽略了它首先应占据我们自己心灵的领地。或许，这就是当一段恋情受挫时，我们会如此地痛苦和悲伤的原因所在。此时，我们才意识到，我们并未负于曾向我们示爱的那个人，只是我们认为它没能让我们充实、完整。我们用误解且无法兑现的承诺来抑制失败。我们失去了爱，不知是否能再次找回它。感情的潮水起伏不定，时而汹涌，时而平和，继而会再次澎湃。

No one else, no matter how much we talk or cry, can pull us through the anxious hours of soul repair and growth. It is our own fire within that needs rekindling, guarding against the winds that would blow it out and leave us dark, cold and helpless. It is at this time that we find the lobe that binds us together with every other being that surrounds us on the planet. Eventually we find the sun still rises to meet in the morning and the stars continue to show us the way each night. The rivers still flow downstream into oceans that will never turn them away. The trees still reach upward every day praising the God that made them. We stand up straight and take a lesson from it all.

无论我们说了多少话，流了多少泪，无人能帮助我们过心灵修复的阴霾与成长过程中的绵绵阴雨。我们的心灵为火需要再燃，需要呵护，不致让风将其吹灭，不致让自己被黑暗、阴冷和无助所包围。此时，我们便找到把我们与周围的每一个生命维系在一起的那份爱。我们终会发现，太阳依然长期升起，来迎接黎明的到来；星光依然闪烁，来指引我们夜行的方向；江河依然流向下游，归入广纳百川的大海；树木依然日日向上生长，歌颂赋予其生命的上苍。我们挺直身躯，从这一切中汲取教训。

What if you woke up one morning and realized that you were the only person left on the face of the earth? Who would you love? Why do we wait so long to start the journey that begins in the same place that it ends？Love, in all its endlessness, unboundedness and failed definitions is this experience.

如果某天早上，当你醒来，发觉这个世界只剩下你一人，你当如何应对？你去爱谁？我们为何要等如此长的时间，才在终点重新形开始新的旅程？这是一次无边无尽、无从定义的爱之旅。

Love doesn’t ask why. It doesn’t come. It doesn’t go. It just is. It is not only in our hands, it is our hands. It isn’t only in our heart, it is what makes our heart beat every beat. It wraps itself around us so securely that all we need to do to survive against all odds is to recognize it as the very breath we just drew, and the last breath we just let go.

爱不问理由。它不会走近你，也不会远离你。爱始终存在着。它就是我们的手中，在我们的心里，确切地说就是我们的双手，就是我们每一次心跳的动力。爱将我们安全地包围着，我们把它当成每一次真切的呼吸，时刻与爱同在，是我们克服一切困难有秘诀。