The Nature of Love

February 14, 2011 by flandrumhill

What on earth would you liken love to? Ever since King Solomon compared his beloved to a garden of delights, poets and writers of prose have made use of elements in nature to describe their feelings of love in terms that others can understand.

In the 1700s, ‘The Ploughman’s Poet’ Robert Burns wrote:

My love is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June…

These wild roses found growing behind Rainbow Haven beach last summer are more pink than red, but the effect is similar. Their petals look so soft and tender, and the buds seem especially full of promise.

Anyone who thinks love is only for the young might be surprised to learn that Pulitzer prize winner Carl Sandburg was in his eighties when he wrote these lines from Offering and Rebuff:

I could love you, as dry roots love rain.
I could hold you, as branches in the wind brandish petals.
Forgive me for speaking so soon.

‘The Poet for the Planet,’ John Denver, frequently found inspiration in nature…

You fill up my senses
Like a night in the forest
Like a mountain in springtime
Like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert
Like the sleepy blue ocean…

Later in life, Denver also wrote

Perhaps love is like the ocean
Full of conflict, full of change…

If love is anything, it’s never that way for long. Like so much in nature, it keeps transforming itself as well as those who are touched by it.

Matt Groening, creator of the comic strip ‘Life in Hell’ and ‘The Simpsons’ wrote:

Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.

Though ice weasels (ermines), like this one I found last winter in the salt marsh, are pretty cute creatures, they tend to go right for the jugular when attacking. Love can be like that too.

In good times and bad, there is no denying the power love has over our lives. Perhaps Solomon, the wisest man who ever walked the planet, said it best…

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.
~ Song of Solomon 8.7

Happy Valentine’s Day!

If you’re in the mood to read more about love, here are some previous posts on the topic:

The Deepest Secret

Love at the Beach

Transformations

Posted in Natural Phenomena | Tagged Inspiration, love, nature, Nova Scotia, poetry, reflections, Valentine's Day, writing | 22 Comments

22 Responses

on February 14, 2011 at 10:16 am | Reply Barbara Rodgers

♥ Happy Valentine’s Day ♥

Enjoyed your thoughtful words, quotes and photos for this day…
on February 14, 2011 at 10:32 am | Reply flandrumhill

Thank you Barbara.
I would love to know how you made those hearts appear in your comment. I still haven’t figured out how to do that.
- on February 14, 2011 at 10:37 am | Reply Barbara Rodgers
  
  Originally I “copied and pasted” the hearts from someone else’s post and then kept one filed in my word processor. It’s available there to copy and paste it whenever…
on February 14, 2011 at 11:33 am | Reply Dawn

♥ Happy Valentine’s Day! ♥

(If you are on Windows – go to your program listings/Accessories/system tools/character map)

You can harvest all the shapes you like!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
on February 14, 2011 at 11:56 am | Reply flandrumhill

Thank you Barbara and Dawn. I was actually wondering how to make the hearts without having to copy and paste. I did some searching and found that they could be made in HTML by putting the word ‘hearts’ between an ampersand (&) and a semi-colon (;) without any spaces.

Give it a try 🙂

♥ ♥ ♥
on February 14, 2011 at 12:59 pm | Reply Scott Thomas Photography

Ah, JD is one of my favorites for Love Songs. He produced a CD of his best love songs before his death.

Follow me where I go
what I do and who I know
Make it part of you
to be a part of me
Follow me up and down
all the way and all around
Take my hand and say
you’ll follow me
- on February 14, 2011 at 2:49 pm | Reply flandrumhill
  
  Scott, John Denver’s songs were so remarkably simple yet they captured the essence of every feeling he tried to communicate with them. I don’t think we have that CD, but my husband probably still has every single other album he made.
on February 14, 2011 at 6:38 pm | Reply Sybil

Thanks Amy-Lynn.

I could hear John Denver singing …

Love the Matt Groenig quote …

That one made me smile.

Happy Valentine’s Day.
on February 14, 2011 at 9:07 pm | Reply Kathy

Good evening, dear illuminator of love! I am admiring the heart-shaped rock and the songs and quotes. Wondering about the nature of love. I think one of its attributes is its staying power. True love stays through ice and sunshine and rough seas. It somehow encompasses all. Happy Valentine’s Day to you, Amy-Lynn.
on February 15, 2011 at 2:59 am | Reply pepsoid

I find it so hard to write “love poems”… I managed something for my ♥ yesterday (the result is between me & she!), but it’s so hard to avoid a string of clichés… However…

My perception of John Denver is of long childhood car journeys, played on an old cassette recorder, so not the most positive – a reminder of his poignancy, however, puts him in a fresher, more positive light for me! I particularly like the first line of your first quote, Amy…

“You fill up my senses”

Can one say more than this?

A day late, but… hope you all people you love and who love you back! ♥♥♥

(PS. I’ve just realised I’ve never asked you, Amy, where the title of your blog comes from…?)
- on February 23, 2011 at 8:15 am | Reply flandrumhill
  
  Pepsoid, I live on Flandrum Hill Road which might explain the title of my blog 🙂
  - on February 24, 2011 at 1:38 am pepsoid
    
    That’s that mystery solved! 😉
on February 15, 2011 at 1:10 pm | Reply Sakhi

nice post Amy… 🙂

Hope you had a happy valentine’s day 🙂
on February 15, 2011 at 1:10 pm | Reply swaps

WOW!
What better gift on V-day, than introduce a poet!

Thank you Amy.

Like a night in the forest
So true…

♥♥
♥♥♥
♥♥
♥
on February 16, 2011 at 10:52 am | Reply Val Erde

The ice weasels of love. Now there’s an image…
Now, let’s see if this works, it used to:
Alt key plus 3 on the numerical keypad:
♥
Yep!
on February 17, 2011 at 2:42 pm | Reply Gerry

Alt-3, eh? ♥ Thanks, Val!

I could swear I was over here muttering about ice weasels but I see I failed to wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day. It’s been a hectic week, over and above the ice weasels.
on February 21, 2011 at 9:04 pm | Reply missusk76

I’m not going to be able to get Groenig’s philosophy out of my mind for some time. What a mind! 🙂
I do love your collected sentiments here, beautifully juxtaposed with wonderful images of nature.
on February 23, 2011 at 7:32 am | Reply Follow Me Up and Down | Views Infinitum

[…] of the Flandrumhill blog wrote a Valentine’s Day post about the Nature of Love. In the post she referenced song lyrics by John Denver. For some reason, I immediately thought of […]
on February 23, 2011 at 8:12 am | Reply flandrumhill

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine’s Day/Week with as few ice weasels as possible. Thank you all for adding your comments and heart tips to the discussion.

If you would like to see more of John Denver, please be sure to visit Scott’s post at Views Infinitum (http://stphoto.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/follow-me-up-and-down/)
- on February 23, 2011 at 9:09 am | Reply Scott Thomas Photography
  
  Thank you, Amy! For the inspiration and the link back.
  
  You can delete the one above which no longer exists. That’s my test blog and I did not realize it would send out a link back. Me, bad!
on March 21, 2011 at 6:01 pm | Reply Yousei Hime

Though I’m not reading this on Valentines Day, I enjoyed it nonetheless. I’ve given some thought to my relationships lately. I’m neither completely contented nor hopelessly disappointed. There is some of all of it. Room to grow and much to weed. Thank you for this post.
- on March 27, 2011 at 4:29 am | Reply flandrumhill
  
  You’re so welcome Yousei. I hope you’re able to find some beautiful blooms among the weeds.