In response to my previous post, my blog brother Eric of Straight White Guy, responded by reminding me of an old C. S. Lewis quote: "To love is to be vulnerable." Thanks Bro, for the encouragement and inspiration.

UPDATE: My blog Dad, Harvey of Bad Example, shares about what it was like to find, lose and reclaim his wonderful, first and, only true love of his life. Laughing Wolf has two posts. This post is an extraordinary tale of how love led him to become the man he is today. His 2nd post is about how true love is about the experience of loving and receiving rather than loosing.

I see that he and I share similar philosophies of love, for no matter what has happened in love, I have become a better and stronger person for it. Sometimes the pain might get in the way of that lesson, but in retrospect, I see that I am better for having loved.

Acidman and Jerry of Stuff About were wonderful enough to share memories of their first loves.

Those of you who have emailed me your love stories (for my eyes only), thank you. They made me laugh and one in particular touched my heart and almost made me cry. For those who still want to write about their First Love, please do so as I'd love to read your story.

In the last 4 years I've experienced a great deal of loss. Loss that for a long time I thought was too insurmountable for me to even consider being social again. During that time I retreated from the world to a place of silence and memories. I needed to be there in order to grieve and heal. Today I find myself in a better place. A place of hope, where I feel ready to open up my heart and allow people to enter it once again.

Thanks for showing me that you have loved, lost and have been able to love again.

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In an effort to maintain the mood or essense of love we created in our lives last week, I would like to open the comments section or to get linkbacks to the memories of our first loves. I'll post mine in an update later.

Over a week ago, Christina of Feisty Repartee challenged men to share how they express(ed) their love to the possesor of their affections. True to form, Eric, That1Guy, Mr. Helpful, and Acidman shared in their posts, how men can express love with depth and affection. They were truly inspiring and evoked memories of my first love. This made me wonder: What was it about their first true love that made them fall in love and whether their love was reciprocated or not. I also wondered how that love has impacted their love life in the present.

I call on my cyber friends and family to help inspire me to be hopeful about love again by kindling that little spark of love in all of us through the sharing of our stories. more...

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I have often wondered about the depth and longevity of men's love. In reading the posts of Eric, That1Guy, Mr. Helpful, and Acidman, I realize now that there is hope to still meet the kind of man I'd like to meet.

Gentlemen, thanks for opening up and letting women know what a man's measure of true love is. You've certainly taken my breath away.

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