Romantic love. What does it mean really? And how important is it?
Is it realistic to want it, or is it a fanciful waste of time?
Not the sexy, hormone fuelled kind that has the drive for the survival of the species behind it, but the more light-hearted fun (and funny) kind - charm, magic, enchantment, whimsy, tenderness, delight, fascination, with a hint perhaps of the absurd.
The very opposite of - serious, earnest, worthy, dutiful, careful, efficient, planned, of checklists and to-do lists, of the humdrum and the boring.
You know the kind I mean!
Romantic needn't refer to a relationship to another person but can be an attitude to life as a whole: to literature, art, music, gardening - I wrote a little about it here.
Are you a romantic?
Do you, or would you like to, indulge your romantic side?
See Sarah Ban Breathnach's 2002 book Romancing The Ordinary, or Pia Jane Bijkerk's charming book My Heart Wanders (I love the photgraphs) or her blog Enhance The Ordinary. There's a gentle side to these that's rather attractive - if we can slow down long enough....and although there is a tendecy to see romance as a feminine attribute consider the romantic poetry, music and indeed art installations that have been created by men. Maybe the men in your life would like the chance to indulge their romantic side too.