Symptoms of Love
"The first symptom of love in a young man is shyness; the first symptom in a woman, it's boldness."
-- Victor Hugo
This quote got me thinking today about love. What are the symptoms of love? What are your symptoms when you begin to love someone?
Because I am Kate, I made a list of mine:
When face-to-face/involuntary reactions:
- If the love is really strong and hits me fast, I have trouble making eye contact with my object of affection (OA.)
- I tell bad jokes too quickly, in succession, without giving OA time to react. This is a feeble attempt to make OA smile and/or laugh, since people generally like people who make them laugh.
- OR I clam up entirely, making only silent nervous responses to OA's attempts to engage me in conversation. Often during this period, I blink too much and have a faint look of terror on my face.
- I smile too much and too quickly, even at bad jokes.
Wooing/voluntary reactions/to show general love (for males and females, friends and family)
- In general, if I love you I will become overpowered with the desire to make you gifts. Most of my friends do not write/knit/cook for me as often as I do for them, and I'm OK with this because I know they appreciate me. However, if I ever see a gift of mine being worn/in a place of honor in someone's home, I am over the MOON with happiness.
- I write letters and postcards. I spend money on postage and packaging and I write with my nice pens.
- I make mix CDs and spend a lot of time getting the songs and transitions just so.
- I burn share whole albums with people who I think may like them.
- I knit things for them, which they may or may not wear. If they do wear them, I feel like a million dollars. I like that my mom keeps the scarf I made for her in the car ("in case she gets cold.")
- I cook for people. In high school, Sheree and I would conspire to make people happy in the kitchen; we've cooked a birthday cake for Jamie Yates (which we frosted before the cake was cool), created a special Hershey bar for Jeff Heersche (pronounced "Hershey") on his birthday, and made my mother a birthday cake with green frosting. Now, I cook for my neighbors and my coworkers, keeping my boss sugar-high on brownies, and sometimes I even ship the goodies to people.
- I call and/or send text messages.
- I'm present. If you invite me to an event, call me, or ask for my time, I will show you love and respect with my attendance. Yes, I will answer the phone when you call. Yes, I will go to your show.
Now I'm curious about YOUR love symptoms. How do you show love, intentionally or unintentionally? You can make a list like me or just freewrite paragraph style. But DO respond. I want to know!