Nokomis Notes: Grandmotherly wisdom for all ages-"Refections of Love"

Observer Staff

4/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

How many loves do we have in one lifetime? The average person has quite a few, probably 10 or 12 "permanently," not including friends or family. Of course there are those people who love everybody. Sounds like a barrel of loves and laughter doesn't it.

All mankind, animals of the world, fish of the sea, birds of the atmosphere and bugs of the earth share a thing called love. That's why we have Mother Earth.

Sometimes we take love for granted or at face value. We grow up learning to separate different kinds of affection. A baby first loves its mother, the first person in sight. Have you ever noticed little ducks follow anything that moves? The ugly duckling followed the mother duck and didn't know it was a beautiful swan until it grew up. We are all that way one time or another.

After we grow a bit older, we encounter our second love-school romance. Girlfriends and boyfriends rotating with the days of the week, innocent playground flirtations and shared peanut butter and jelly sandwiches....puppy love.

Things start to get more serious in high school and college. We find someone we just can't do without. We want that person for a lifetime. It's a beautiful kind of love that leads to marriage.

Then we have love for material items, like money, prestige and things of wealth. If one is not careful this love can interfere with serious love relationships and transform into another emotion. Self love: Me, me, me, everything is for me, about me and only me. We can learn a thing or two from our younger selves and remember what made puppy love and serious love so enchanting.

Mature love is the best. Someone wrote: "Grow old with me, the best is yet to come." We sit on an old bench by the lake holding hands, fishing poles in the other, remembering and creating new memories.

Love forgives all, even snoring.