I love you...

No, not really. This piece is about love though. You'll get it if you decide to keep reading.

I have a four month old who I love telling that, "I love you" even though he doesn't understand one bit of it. He doesn't even know what love is so far. Then I wonder why do we stop telling people we love them especially when they understand fully what it means and how much it means to them.

I have also noticed that no matter what culture, religion, or social background we belong to, generally people stop saying these three words and start expecting actions to express them instead. I don't think this is wrong but then it is also equally important to say these three words. Why else would every movie, drama, advertisement, and other forms of media climax at someone saying these three words with a whole orchestra playing in the background? Well, yes because sometimes they ARE the climax of someone's life. And no I don't think only women yearn to hear them. Men yearn for these too but being men they are sometimes too stuck up, or oblivious of this need. Some people are too egoistic to admit that they want their loved ones to pamper them with these three magical words. Some are too shy, some say its too cheesy, some too critical, and some just convince themselves that they are stoic, with no hearts and emotions.

We are all human beings. We are made of two major components, flesh and soul. We feed the flesh everyday with the best of available food then why neglect the soul? The best food for our souls is love. Yes, we have relationships which everybody knows operate on love as the major component, but we do need to wrap that love occasionally in these three words and give it to the other person only because this gesture, as simple as it is, will make them happier than if we gifted them a very expensive gift, or wrote an entire book of praises for them.

When we are young our parents keep telling us they love us. Then we grow up and become spiteful of their love, thinking it is blocking our space and independence, not realizing that somewhere down the road this exchange of words transitions from their end to ours. When we are old enough to understand love we should be the ones telling them over and over we love them, just because they exist, because they did the same to us.

And the same goes for our siblings. People we grew up with. People who know us better than any friend or spouse or sometimes even our parents. Who have seen us at our best and more importantly at our worst. Who have entirely different perspectives on life than we do and will never agree to ours. But despite all this we love them because God Made this love natural in us. I wonder why was it important to make siblings, why not just have friends and spouses and be it? Because siblings are the mirror that show us our childhood and why we love it. Everyone has a different childhood and the memories from it are usually the most prized ones that we ever have, something we will not exchange even if someone gave us a billion dollars. Then why not tell the most important part of these memories how much they mean to us? And why not often?

And the same goes for our spouses. When we first fall in love, these three words sound like honey, magic, and all that jazz from our future husband or wife. But as time passes these words fall in the background and other "more important" things occupy our priorities. Owning a house, getting a better job, buying more things for the house, children, their clothes, their schools, and every other little and big material thing becomes so much more important that even though you sleep and wake up next to the other person every day you still do not have 15 seconds to tell them you love them.

And yes, the same goes for friends, and teachers, and mentors, and all other good people in life. In fact, it also goes for all bad people in our lives. People we think are bad because they don't love us for us, and because someone did not tell them they were loved, so they ended up being sulky, and rotten, and bitter. Its never too late to help them by saying these words sometimes even if we don't mean them.

So, with this in mind, I just want to end on the note that today, let's just genuinely tell someone that we love them because there is no guarantee we or they will be there tomorrow to say or hear it.