Maybe there is no such thing as love – not really – only proof of your love.

Everyone has, of course, heard it before, but the Bible has this timeless passage about love:

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

-1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NKJV)

But here’s the thing: All of the characteristics listed here are actions.

They are not warm and fuzzy feelings that start somewhere in your heart and flow out the tips of your fingers and toes in some kind of touchy-feely splendor.

They are things that you do.

This is the same way we are not able to see the wind – but can see the effects of the wind.

If you think about it, this idea has broad implications.

I had to look him up, but Pierre Reverdy was a French poet (1889-1960). Interestingly, Reverdy maintained a forty year relationship with designer Coco Chanel.

I’ve never forgotten something I read in college, by Pierre Reverdy: “There is no love; there are only proofs of love.” Whatever love I might feel in my heart, others will see only my actions.

-Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project