love is such a human emotion.
it is a word we use to encompass all that we feel for a person, yes, but it is not the most important.
if i told someone that i loved them but i didn’t trust them, what would that mean? would my love for them still overshadow everything else? or would it be that no amount of love could ever make up for lack of trust that a relationship needs to healthily thrive.
love is a human emotion in that we could say we love someone, mean it with all that we are, but take all of our meaningless belongs and leave our “love” months later when decided that we’ve had enough.
wolves do not face this problem.
they find their chosen mate and stay with them until one, or both, die.
the average lifespan for a wolf is three years, if they don’t find a mate until they’re two it’s safe to assume that they’ll only have, at most, three years together.
that seems like such a sort time for us, three years. how could anyone, human or mammal, live a, even remotely, satisfying life. it takes us an estimated four years of college before we graduate and can finally begin to live.
in that time a wolf has turned one, left their pack to find a mate, and lived three or four years with their chosen one, possibly having pups, a pack, before dying; however, i have a feeling they wouldn’t be unsatisfied by how their life played out.
love is such a fickle emotion, such a human concept.
we use it so easily and freely, when really it should be something to consider. love shouldn’t be something we use as the highest show of our affections, it should be a way to simplify a multitude of words and emotions that can be hard to express individually. it could be a way to sum up so many thoughts and feelings like: i’m willing to be vulnerable with you, i’m willing to let you in and show you things i rarely, if ever, have shown others, you’re my person, you’re someone i yearn for, i’m fond of you, i want to be with you for as long as you’ll have me; but most importantly, it should be a way of saying, “i trust you. i am willing to trust you with everything i have, even if you aren’t there yet.”
if only it were that simple for us humans, but we only have ourselves to blame as we are the ones who complicate things unnecessarily.
wolves are different, they are how we could be. there is no word wolves use for love, there is no true way for us translate the way they feel, how they feel. wolves don’t need words and complex gestures to prove we love someone like we do, they have a lifelong devotion to their mate and their unshakable trust with their pack.
love is a fickle thing, the way humans use it, but trust…
trust shows a deeper bond that doesn’t fully compare.
you can trust someone without loving them, but how can you love someone and not trust them?