I always thought falling deeply in love was part of the whole deal. That everyone fell I love at least once, and that if you did, nothing would change that. While I'm still a romantic at heart, my views have changed a bit.

Not everyone falls in love. I have met people that are quite a bit older, and I don't believe they've ever truly been in love with anyone. I'm sure they've loved people, but not in the change your entire world sort of way. I've been in that sort of love, but it didn't work out. That's the other part of this I'm trying to come to terms with. Sometimes (most times) life doesn't go the way you always thought it would.

I am madly in love with my daughter, and that might be the only sort of true love that ever really works out for me. I'm starting to think I'm ok with that. Life is far more complicated than you can understand when you're young, and it's easy to believe the love should conquer all, but that theory ignores the different types of love that are out there. Love for a child. Love for yourself. Sometimes those trump everything else.

I hope my daughter finds the real sort of love in a partner, but if she doesn't I hope that she finds it in her siblings and her children. It may not be the love that makes it in the fairy tales, but it's probably a much stronger sort.