Love Lounge: How has love changed you?

As the ever-quotable Huey Lewis and the News once quipped: The power of love, it's a curious thing. And indeed, they were right. Those words are as true today in 2011 as they were when Huey (probably clad in neon parachute pants) sang them in the '80s. Love is an awesome force, isn't it? Perhaps the most powerful feeling we'll ever experience. It shapes us. It changes us. It courses through the veins of the person we become. We wouldn't be who we are without love.

And I'm not talking solely about romantic love here. The love we have for our parents, siblings, aunts, grandparents, best friends, the mail man -- and the love they have for us? It all contributes to who we are. Love has made me strong. It's made me appreciate life. And it's given me a pretty big dose of confidence and self-assurance.

Now, this isn't to say that all our encounters with love are the red-roses, Hallmark-card kind. Yes, love can make us sad. Yes, love can leave us empty and broken and unsure. Yes, love can leave us bitter and jaded. Maybe those feelings aren't so bad, though. We're taught to fear them, to ward them off at the first hint of negativity. If we do this, then maybe, just maybe, we'll eventually discover that they don't exist, and we can go on pretending they never came knocking at the door to our hearts in the first place.

Do we have to take the good with the bad (another '80s reference -- can you guess?? I'm pretty sure we do. Because we wouldn't be who we are without the balance of the two.

So, friends, I'd love to know: How has love changed you? Do you think that love is one of the most powerful forces out there? xoxo

[Photos via We Heart It]