What does love mean to you?
With Valentine’s Day not far away, we have spent some time reflecting on what love means to us here at Keap; the one thing we’re clear on is that there is no simple answer.
Love, according to greetings cards, is a one-size-fits-all involving flowers and rhyming poems.
What came across in our team’s discussion was a deeper recognition that love is varied, personal, rich, and nuanced. It is also messy and complicated. Most of all, love is not limited: we share love with our life partners, families, chosen families, relatives, friends, children, pets, plants, animals, homes, communities, selves, planet — and the list goes on.
This is the sort of love we want to celebrate this Valentine’s Day: an unfettered and limitless love, inclusive of all.
With much love,
— Stephen from Keap
Reflections on Love.
"Love is the opposite of fear. Love without the expectation of receiving love in return. And more importantly, love yourself. 'Love has to come from within, if it is to come at all' - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross."
— Jess, Partnerships at Keap
"Love is one of those words that is wonderfully undefinable. It is such a beautifully subjective, human concept that it perhaps more than any other fully defines our ‘humanity’.
Love can be the look a mother shines on her child. It can appear through an act of kindness to someone close to us or through forgiveness of a complete stranger. It can be a sentiment that we send out into the world or a compassionate inward response, towards ourselves."
—Harry, Chief Candle Officer at Keap
"For me first and foremost, love is a way of relating to people. A true love relationship has room for so much inside of it: pleasure and happiness, sure, but also shared longing, shared sadness, all the shared little mundane frustrations. Poets often talk about how writing makes them 'feel less alone.'
I think love does that, too: It’s a way of occupying a truly communal space with other people — mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically."
— Matt, Copywriter at Keap
Also MLK Jr. says it nicely…
“Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another.”
Happy Valentine's Day!