Finding Something You Love Is More Important Than Finding Someone To Love

"I know it's a cornball thing. But love is passion, obsession, someone something you can't live without. I say, fall head over heels. Find someone something you can love like crazy and who will love you the same way back. How do you find him it? Well, you forget your head and you listen to your heart. And I'm not hearing any heart. 'Cause the truth is, honey, there's no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love, well, you haven't lived a life at all. But you have to try, 'cause if you haven't tried, you haven't lived." - Anthony Hopkins on Love

That excerpt is from the father/daughter talk in the movie Meet Joe Black. In the movie Anthony Hopkins tells his onscreen daughter that her relationship with her fiancé has all the passion of a pair of titmice. Not an ounce of excitement. Not a whisper of a thrill. He wants her to get swept away. Levitate. To sing with rapture and dance like a dervish. To be deliriously happy.

Oh...and the strikeouts, those are my edits.

I edited it because I believe finding something you love is more important than finding someone to love.

(I'll pause briefly while you sigh heavily over those terribly unromantic words from me.)

Think about your life, minus any romantic relationship you may be in. Are you deliriously happy? Deeply in love? Levitating? There should be at least one THING, not a person, in your life that sets your soul on fire. One THING that makes life worth living. One THING you couldn't live without. If you can't easily name that thing, you need to find it!

When I was 18, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. Most 18-year-olds don't. Although my problem wasn't that none of the college majors interested me. It was that I was interested in almost all of them! I had trouble deciding on only one. So I double majored. And even then I considered switching majors twice just before graduation. Needless to say, this drove my parents crazy! But that's how I've been since I was a little kid. Not indecisive. Overly passionate. About so many things!

Passion is one of those words that gets tossed around a lot. Ask a dictionary to define passion and it will say it's a strong and barely controllable emotion. Ask me to define love and I would say it's a strong and uncontrollable emotion.

On the surface, passion and love seem rather similar. But look closer and you'll see one huge difference!

Romantic love often changes and is fleeting. But a true passion in life is constant and everlasting. That is why finding something you love is more important than finding someone to love. It's love that's stable. It's been there since birth and chances are you've been chasing it ever since.

Finding something you love isn't just about filling your time. It's about filling your heart. Making yourself feel complete and happy all on your own. Satisfied to the point where if you never do find someone to love, that your life won't ever feel empty. That you found your life's purpose. Find that one thing that makes you deliriously happy. Levitate.