I want you to get swept away out there. I want you to levitate. I want you to…sing with rapture and dance like a dervish. Be deliriously happy, or at least leave yourself open to be. I know it’s a cornball thing. But love is passion, obsession, someone you can’t live without. I say, fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy and who will love you the same way back. How do you find him? 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 role as “Bill Parrish” in the movie Meet Joe Black, heart to heart father/daughter talk

Love is a crazy, dizzy thing. Sometimes it’s all so beautiful I can hardly stand it. I want to capture it. So I take a photograph. To make time stand still. I freeze the moment for all eternity and hang that memory on a wall. But then that doesn’t seem like enough. The photograph allows me to recall that exact same vision I once had, but it doesn’t give me the movement. The way that one strand of hair kept blowing across her face, attempting to unite with her bottom lip. Or the way the early morning sunlight pardoned the rain, reflecting and dancing across the small of her back from the dusty windowpane.

There is video, but not even film can capture how the scent of her perfume and the warmth of her body lingers on my sheets, skin, and soul. Even with all the modern marvels of technology, you can’t completely recreate the image, the movement, the sensation, or the emotion tied to it all. I realize I can’t capture time the way she’s captured my heart, but I still want to live in that moment forever. I don’t want to ever forget how big she smiled, how sexy she danced, how long she laughed, how sweet she smelled, or how she made me fly. So what do I do?

I pull her close to me and hold her. Hold it. So I can remember this moment before it slips away. It makes me sad that moments like these pass as quickly as they came. And then it hits me. I may lose this very moment in time, but there will be plenty more moments in the future to live! That is the moment I smile. The moment I exhale.

I think Louis Armstrong sums up my feelings best on love, life, and all the beauty surrounding both.

“What A Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They’re really saying I love you.

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world.

It’s amazing how much beauty there is in the world. But what’s really amazing is I never seem to take notice of any of it until I’m falling in love. That is clarity. Discovering she has made my world wonderful and made me deliriously happy.

All You Need Blogger: David Stehle

He’s had some good romances, some bad romances, and most likely too many one-night stands. A few months ago David decided to tear up his heart and shut it down. He had a manwhore relapse. Today, he stays open…because you never know when lightening will strike! David is the Founder of a Network Security Consulting company by day and blogs at The Rest Is Still Unwritten by night, with the love of a Bulldog by his side. Follow him on Twitter @davidstehle

Song: Louis Armstong – What A Wonderful World

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.” ~ Aaron  Siskind

Pam: Hey my aunt told me something neat.
Jim: Yeah?
Pam: She said everything with the wedding goes by so fast we should try to take mental pictures of the high points.
Jim: Oh, wow, that’s cool.
Pam: Yeah.
Jim: (mimes taking a mental picture) Click! Oh, you blinked. Dammit, now that’s in my brain forever.
Pam: Oh.
Jim: (mimes scrolling through his mental camera looking at mental pictures) Lousy picture.
Pam: We should have hired a professional to take the mental pictures.
(The Office – Niagra Parts 1 and 2)

All You Need Blogger: Melissa Mullen

Melissa has been photographing love and relationships nationwide for 10 years. The intensity of emotion on the wedding day to the delicate and intimate time of having a baby is a great combination of the simple moments that she loves to watch unfold.  Her journey has allowed her to live and grow her business in New York City, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and ultimately home to the East Coast.  She currently calls New England home.  She loves every opportunity she has to pick up her camera, considers it an honor to document life and is inspired by her unique connection with each of her clients.  Follow her on Twitter @throughtheseyes

Song: Stars – My Favorite Book

“Happily ever after” is one of the most damaging myths about love.

The implied storyline is that boy meets girl, they have some initial struggles, but eventually get together and live happily ever after.

The narrative makes it sound like once you have found love and got it, the “ever after” will be effortless, you can just sit back and enjoy the “happily” part without doing much to maintain it. Goal achieved, nothing left to work for.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

“Happily ever after” requires a hell of a lot of work in the “ever after”-part of the relationship. Love is not something that “happens”, it’s something that is built one day at a time.

What “happens” to people is what I’d like to call hormonal Lust at First Sight. Love may or may not follow.

Photo Credit: Getty Images – Jamie Grill

People tend to mystify our natural biological processes and call them things they are not. What happens at first is nothing more than your animalistic, basal biological instinct to reproduce, a drive that comes from your genes, not your heart.

Love is what makes us rise above being simple, instinctive animals. Love is something that is more than just following your hormonal impulses.

Emotionally mature people can build deep, lasting spiritual and intellectual connections with the people they chose and are compatible with. Connections that are built on the reality of what the other person is, rather than the unrealistic fantasy of the personal angel you want someone else to be for you. Connections that are built on mutual respect and understanding rather than the need for your own ego to be validated.

Yes, it may all start from the Lust at First Sight, biologically triggered attraction, but for love to grow and last, it requires effort if it is to outlast the honey moon period.

True love is the product of a conscious effort to build, grow and nurture the emotional and intellectual connection that people hold to each other. It is not something that “happens.” If you leave love too much to chance and do not maintain it, it will inevitably deteriorate and die.

Just ask yourself: how many relationships seem to deteriorate shortly after marriage? It’s like a lot of people think “goal achieved” and then just sit back and relax once they’ve gotten married.

I believe the prime reason for the sheer amount of divorces and break-ups in the world is a lack of insight to the fact that love requires work and effort. If you believe in an effortless happily ever after love that will always feel like when you had your first kiss, you clearly live in cloud cuckoo-land.

If you want a lasting love and bond with someone, don’t leave it to chance: take control of it, and make a conscious effort together to build it and let love grow.

The “ever after” part of “happily ever after” requires a lot of work and maintenance.

But it might just be worth the effort.

All You Need Blogger: Wille Faler

Wille is an entrepreneur and freelance software developer intent on breaking free from the 9-5. He has an insatiable appetite for challenges, ideas and understanding human nature, subjects which he often writes about on his blog Adventure Capitalist. You can also follow him on Twitter: @wfaler.

Song: Frank Sinatra – The Way You Look Tonight