LOVE



__** Positive: **__ 1. **__Bliss__** - the happiness when one is caught up in the moments that love offers 2. **__Joy__** - that jubilant feeling that often comes when a person is thinking about or with a person that they love 3. **__Fellowship__** - in most cases, when love is shared there is a lack of solitude and lonliness 4. **__Affection__** - hugs, kisses, (etc.) of which are usually a pleasant way to show love for another 5. __**Deep connections with others**__ - with love we can delve unashamedly into someone elses life to create a deeper relationship that cannot be experienced otherwise 6. __**Comforting**__ - we find solace in the fact that we have something else to go to when times are hard, a place where we can get away from it all 7. **__Unconditional__** - real love is a choice to keep serving and loving another even when it is extremely hard to do so 8**. __Passion__** - when love for someone or something awakens a deep desire, it is a motivation to put ones whole self into something

**__Negative:__ 1**. **__Love is blind__** - when someone completely ignores anothers downsides/ faults because they are so caught up in "it all"
 * 2.** __** Can tie you down **__ - with love you are not only concerned about yourself anymore, that other person is affected by what you do, you are not as independent as you once were; you now have to consider that other person (or people) in your decisions
 * __3.__** **__ Love can be obsessive __** - when one person becomes another's only desire/ thoughts.
 * 4**. **__ Can turn into bitterness __** - when the feeling of love is cut off abruptly or ended in an unsatisfying manner, it can lead to harsh feelings towards the person or thing that ended it; or expectations are not met
 * 5.** __**Jealousy**__ - as a person starts to love another, they often start to worry about what could take that person away from them
 * 6.** __**Complicated**__ - there is no clear cut way to describe it, it is often confusing and leaves people feeling lost
 * 7.** __** Controlling **__ - often when someone loves someone else they can get overprotective because they dont want the person they love to get hurt (parents)

As for the positive side of love, the word 'unconditional' is well exemplified by the example of Remedios on page 86: "Remedios had brought a breath of merriment to the house. She had settled with her husband in a room near the workshop, which she decorated with the dolls and toys of her recent childhood, and her merry vitality overflowed the four walls of the bedroom and went like a whirlwind of good health along the porch with the begonias. She would start singing at dawn. She was the only person who dared intervene in the arguments between Rebeca and Amaranta. She plunged into the fatiguing chore of taking care of Jose Arcadio Buendia..." While she was alive, Remedios had a way of serving and helping those around her no matter what. I enjoy this example as opposed to any other because it is an example that isn't between just two people. It's one person living out the unconditional aspect of love to everyone she interacts with on a regular basis. She seeks to help Rebeca and Amaranta, even though they haven't treated her well and does it with joy, which is another positive aspect of love. This shows how she really had no condition set to loving others.

When I saw the word 'obsessive', I don't think that any other example could have stood out more than that of Pietro Crespi's longing love for Amaranta. This most extreme situation is on page 109: "Pietro Crespi lost control of himself. he wept shamelessly, almost breaking his fingers with desperation, but he could not break her down. "Don't waste your time," was all that Amaranta said. "If you really love me so much, don't set food in this house again." Ursula thought she would go mad with shame. Pietro Crespi exhausted all manner of pleas... On November second, All Souls' Day, his brother opened the store and found all the lamps lighted, all the music boxes opened, and all the clocks striking an interminable hour, and in the midst of that mad concert he found Pietro Crespi at the desk in the rear with his wrists cut by a razor and his hands thrust into a basin of benzoin." Obviously, Pietro Crespi's obsession with Amaranta is not healthy and, sadly, leads him to his death. He was so enveloped and blinded by his love for Amaranta, that the rejection he got from her was unbearable and he ended his life when he couldn't stand it anymore. This example is interesting even though it did only involve the two people because it effects Amaranta later on in an extreme case as well. When the guilt of Pietro Crespi's death gets to her, she burns her hand as a constant reminder of him. Both Pietro Crespi and Amaranta's actions express the negative nature that can arise from an emotion as strong as love.