Love: Part 2 -- How much do you love?

Topic provided by my good friend Paige aka typicalquirk

I wonder if you ever know how much you love someone until there is a rough patch.  Until you have faced something big: illness, death, stress, job loss, moving -- do you really know how much you love?

I have always found that love is more clear when it comes to serving someone.  I don't mean: Here's a cup of tea.  I mean, Here is something I am willing to do for you that I would do for no one else.

Once Grandma told us about her relationship with Grandpa.  She said that she had cared for him and loved him when they got married, but it wasn't until he was deathly ill that she knew how much.  It was then she did everything for him and realized that he was the love of her life.

At the time, I was quite surprised.  I thought: Wait! You loved Grandpa, but didn't really love him until he was sick?  YEARS later??  I thought that just couldn't be right.

I was young and have learned through the years that everything I thought I knew about love (and really everything in general) was wrong.  Even this thought of Grandma's has proven to be more true than I realized.

It wasn't until Mom was first sick that I knew how much I loved.  When I was not only willing but pushing other people out of the way to do things for her.  Anything.  Things I thought I would never do for another living human being.  I wanted to do them for her because I loved her.

Now that I am here with Grandma, packing up her earthly possessions, I know how much I love her.  I joke with and about her a lot.  But I know how much I love.  I love her enough to cut her dog's hair with a pair of old scissors.  I love her enough to pack all her things into boxes that she unpacks because she can't remember what is in them.  I love her enough to stay with her for a week even though old people drive me crazy and sometimes my patience is worn to the last string.

I guess we, as human beings, discover love over and over again as it morphs and adapts to experience.  I know that my love with The Guy will do the same.  It's intimidating and also intriguing.

Bring on the disaster!