A ramble by Alan Watts, titled, “5 Signs That This Is the Love of Your Life” on Youtube. I have reduced it to the highlights. It perfectly describes the way Lauren makes me feel.

Think about it. If love only made us feel good, it wouldn’t change us. But the love that’s meant for you will stretch you. It will make you uncomfortable at times. It will make you confront your fears, your insecurities, your own resistance to growth. You’ll find yourself facing moments where you’re challenged to be more patient, more understanding, more forgiving, more honest. You’ll realize that love is not only about being accepted, it’s about being awakened. It’s a quiet invitation to rise beyond your limitations. When someone truly loves you, they don’t let you stay small. They see your potential even when you can’t see it yourself. They encourage you to chase that dream you’ve buried. They remind you that your doubts are not facts. They don’t let you quit on yourself because they know you’re capable of more.

Love is beautifully imperfect, gloriously human. It’s two people constantly learning how to love better, how to forgive deeper, how to listen more fully. It’s not a fairy tale. It’s a classroom for the soul. Every day you’re given lessons, some gentle, some hard, and through them you grow closer to yourself and to each other. Sometimes you’ll look back and realize that love didn’t give you what you wanted, but it gave you what you needed. It didn’t always soothe you. Sometimes it shook you. But in that shaking, you woke up.

You learn that love is not just a feeling but a force. One that expands you, stretches you, and teaches you how to become whole. And when you meet someone who loves you in that way, don’t run. Don’t hide from the discomfort. Stay, grow, and let that love refine you. Because the love of your life is not the one that makes you forget who you are. It’s the one that helps you remember.

In the end, the truest love is not the one that completes you. It’s the one that makes you realize you were already complete, just waiting for someone to remind you. We often imagine love as a perfect union, two flawless souls meeting in divine harmony. But real love has nothing to do with perfection. Real love begins the moment the illusion fades. When the shine wears off. When you’re no longer trying to impress. When your flaws stand naked before another person. That’s when love truly starts. The love of your life isn’t the one who only adores your strengths, your smiles, your best days. It’s the one who sees your cracks, your confusion, your hidden fears, and still says, “I choose you.” Not once, not twice, but again and again, even when it’s hard.

When someone truly loves you, you stop being afraid of your own imperfections. You stop pretending. You start healing because for the first time, you realize that being imperfect doesn’t make you unworthy of love, it makes you human. And when you’re loved in your humanness, it changes everything. You begin to love yourself differently, too. The love of your life becomes a mirror, not to show you what’s wrong with you, but to remind you that even the broken pieces belong. You see, love that sees your flaws is not weak. It’s wise. It doesn’t confuse mistakes with identity. It understands that people are not their worst moments.

In the end, the love of your life is not the one who completes your picture. It’s the one who accepts your unfinished masterpiece and still sees it as beautiful. There is something profoundly misunderstood about love in the modern world. We have been taught to equate love with excitement, with intensity, with the kind of passion that burns bright and fast. the fireworks, the chaos, the endless chase. But that kind of love, beautiful as it seems, often leaves us exhausted. It consumes us instead of completing us. The love of your life, the real one, won’t always feel like a storm. It will feel like still water, deep, calm, and endlessly steady. You will know it not because it makes your heart race, but because it makes. your soul rest.