Love

Love

By Tracel Dickerson

Love: Deep affection and warm feeling for another; a beloved person. Love can comes in any shape or size. Even though it’s a four letter word it can mean so much to someone. When we love someone material things shouldn’t matter. What should matter is how much we love that person when the material things stop coming our way. As we may know love is a universal word. And we need to take advantage of it because somewhere in this world someone doesn’t know that they are loved. That’s when I’ve come to realize that love isn’t a word we should take for granted. Love is a word that we need in our lives. It’s a word that’s necessary to hear from time to time just to know that we are not alone in this world.

There was a time in my life when I learned about the word Love. As a child I was brought up in Church .They always taught me that God is love. No matter what you do in life God loves you unconditionally. I’ve also learned that love can’t be bought; it’s something that comes naturally. Ever since then I’ve seen God’s love in my family and people I’m close to.

It was the summer of ’96; the sun was out with no clouds in the sky, but there was smoke in the air from the backyard barbeques. My brother and I were playing around doing what little kids do. We were playing hide and go seek, he was the seeker and of course I was hiding. I hid under the stairs where my mother had the toys. I was hunched over with my feet sticking out giving my hiding spot away, but my brother didn’t realize it. He was so busy running he stumbled over my foot and fell on the floor. All of a sudden his eyes started getting all watery. Then he looked at me with the meanest face and said;

“HEY, you tripped me!” he yelled

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to, it wasn’t my fault you didn’t watch where you were going” I said.

“Yes you did, I’m telling mommy!” He said

So out of anger my brother ran to my mother trying to tell her everything that happened. Running franticly to find my mother we both came across a women who stood 5’7 tall, long black hair and curvy who was in the kitchen cooking a meal for the night. Before we were able say a word she said; “What are you two doing?” With my brother being so mad, he went first.

“Mommy, Tracel tripped me when we were playing and I hurt myself!” he whimpered.

“Well, if you watched where you were going then we wouldn’t have this problem,” I replied

We went back and forth yelling at each other trying to get our point across. She just looked at us while we made complete fools of ourselves, and started laughing hysterically. Then we just stopped fussing and looked at her like she was crazy. Then she stared at us with a sincere look. She sat us down and she said; “If you love each other then what the person does to you shouldn’t matter. Just apologize and move on.”

After we apologized she let my brother go on outside and play with the others, but kept me inside to talk to me about something. At first I thought I did something wrong, but she wanted to say a few words to me. She told me “Love is a word that comes and goes but few people really know what it means to really love somebody. So people who do know keep them close to your heart and cherish every moment even if they do get upset, just know it doesn’t last long. I’m telling you this because I love you from the bottom of my heart.”

After the little pep talk my mother gave me. I realized that she was very serious about what she said. At that age I really didn’t understand a word she was saying until she showed me. She showed me how to love everybody even though she didn’t like what they did or said. Just because life is too short to hold any grudges. She will even give me the biggest kiss on the cheek just to show how much she loves me. Love comes in any shape, size, or form. As long as it comes from the heart that’s all that matters.