Shannon, 14
Oklahoma
Asks:

Do you think there is a certain age for love?

Lee's Thoughts:

What a beautiful question to think about on this beautiful (almost Spring) Friday. I think that if you are old enough to think about it, you are old enough to experience love. If you feel a warmth, a stirring in your soul that no other word or phrase can adequately describe, that feeling is usually screaming out to you that it is love. Once you acknowledge that, it seems to fit perfectly.

What is so amazing about love is the millions of different levels and degrees and depths at which you can feel it and the millions of different people you can feel it for, be it family, a pet, a best friend, or a romantic interest.

For me, love and life are inextricably entwined. To answer your question, No, I do not think there is a certain age for love. Like I said, when you feel it, you just *know* what it is if you listen to yourself.

However, the beauty of the journey of life is the lessons. Throughout life, people learn how to love. With every relationship, with every year, with every passing day, we learn the depths of love that we are capable of. So, the love you feel at 14 years old is different from the love you felt at 10 years old. (Do you remember? Do you agree?) Think back. It doesn't even compare, does it? The love you may feel now is completely different then the love you will have at 20 or 25 or 30. That is because you are a different person. You have different tools, different experiences, different knowledge.

Honestly, it just...keeps...getting...BETTER!!

That is why I can't understand when someone says that they want to get married at age 17 or 18. It's insane to me, because in my (ahem) late 20's or sooo.... I know that the 25 and 30 year old love is sooo much deeper and wiser and more fun! We make GRAND strides from our teens to our twenties, no matter who we are. There are so many tools to gather as independent people learning about love.

Love is something that can be felt very early in life and will probably be felt all throughout our lives. Yes, the loss of it and the striving for it will cause pain at times, but it is incredibly worth it. We all have great capacities for love. It's just a matter of being patient with ourselves, our lives, and our soulmates trying to find us.