Love - Being and Doing

It never ceases to amaze me that what may be familiar sometimes is like it is seen for the first time.
This morning I was listening to music. A song was playing.  It was nice but not outstanding.  A guy was saying how he wanted people to think of him.  He sang words that suddenly made me see something in a different light.  He sang “love is who I am.”
I have considered and written about love before.  It reminds me of the ad that said something like “there are two million stories in the yellow pages, and this has been one of them.  To me love is like that (though this is like putting a finite number on the infinite).
It had me thinking for the first time that love needs to be more than what I do but who I am.  I will always be thankful for acts of kindness and of love.  To me doing them is easier when I appreciate the recipient and have feelings that make the act easy.  It is way harder if I do not necessarily take to the person, or do not feel like it.  There are definitely times I would prefer to cocoon myself in myself and let someone else do it.  Loving may not be the last thing I want to do, but it is a fair way down the list.
There is no doubt I appreciate when love happens to me, but if I do it, it can easily be that what I do is divorced from who I am.
On the other hand, if it is who I am then it is my DNA to do.  Love never grows old.  To me it is always on trend.  Top of the list.  More important than anything being reported.  It is the most important driver in the world.  Other things may clamber for my attention, but love is the action that means the most.
This definitely puts a new perspective on things.  No matter what, loving may be a grit my teeth and do thing, but if it is who I am I will do it because it is who I am.  If on the other hand it is just what I do, I am way more vulnerable to letting it slide.  It is way more likely to be something I do when I feel like it.
To me the best example of loving because it is who I am is shown by parents to children.  When kids are young, they need looking after and defending.  There comes a day when kids say, “I’ll take over from here thanks (dad or mum).”  But they will always be looked out for, because it is who the parents are.  They love.  It is unconditional.  Behaviour may be good or bad but when push comes to shove most parents are there for the kids.
When love is who I am, I am looking out for others.  I do because it is who I am.  It is not like, because on balance love is deserved.  It is like love is the response though love may be undeserved.
I am finding it hard to convey my thoughts, but it changes the bottom line for me.  Definitely easier to say than to do.  I need a bigger boat.