What if you couldn’t say the word love? What if the only way to express it was through action? Would your relationships thrive, or would they crumble under the weight of unspoken expectations?
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Love is a word we throw around too easily. We say we love our friends, our partners, our families, even our pets. But if the word disappeared, how many of us would still feel loved? How many of us would still know how to love?
I think about this often. I watch the world move through contradictions—people saying “I love you” while their actions scream otherwise. Love has become an empty phrase, a shield that allows people to avoid responsibility. We assume saying it is enough, that the words alone should fill the gaps where effort is missing. But love is not a word. It’s a verb. It’s an action.
My husband made me realize this in the simplest way. We got a dog—a beautiful, spirited animal that became a part of our lives. I didn’t grow up with dogs. In my Caribbean household, dogs weren’t family members; they were animals that stayed outside. So when we brought this little creature home, I was unsure how to connect with it.
The first challenge? Feeding him. The previous owner handed us a bag of dry kibble, but as I poured it into the bowl, I thought, “Who in their right mind decided this was food?” I wouldn’t eat dry, bland pellets every day, so why should he? I added apples, carrots, a little chicken gravy—hooked it up. And just like that, he never looked back.
Over time, we built a relationship—not through words, but through actions. He never says, “I love you,” but I know he does. He shows it in his excitement when I come home, in the way he curls up beside me, in his trust. And in return, I show love by caring for him, making sure he’s happy and healthy. No words needed—just effort.
That’s when it hit me. Love isn’t spoken. It’s demonstrated. And if you remove the word from a relationship, what’s left? Are the actions enough to prove love exists, or would they reveal a painful truth?
Think about it—how often do we hear “I love you” followed by betrayal, neglect, or harm? Love shouldn’t be something we declare and forget; it should be something we do every day. Yet, the world runs on the illusion that words are enough. We say we love our partners, but do we honor and support them? We say we love our children, but do we listen to them? We say we love humanity, but do we act with kindness and integrity?
The truth is, if love could only be shown and not spoken, many of us would realize we aren’t loved at all. We’d see the coldness in relationships that rely on words instead of effort. We’d recognize that saying “I love you” has become an escape clause, a way to bypass the responsibility of actually proving it.
Growing up, I never heard “I love you” from my mother. And for years, I convinced myself that she did love me, that maybe she just didn’t know how to say it. But in the end, I had to face reality—her actions told the real story. Love isn’t in the words withheld or the ones spoken too easily; it’s in what we do when words don’t exist.
If you want to know if someone loves you, stop listening. Start watching. Observe how they treat you when it’s inconvenient. Pay attention to how they support you when there’s nothing in it for them. See if their actions match their words.
And most importantly, reflect on yourself. Are you showing love, or just saying it? If tomorrow, you lost the ability to say “I love you,” would the people in your life still feel it? Would your actions be enough?
Because love is not a phrase. Love is a verb. And it’s time we start acting like it.
The take away …Love energy can hurt in its birth- coming through the portal of life or the divine life bursting from the earth toward the light or the pain of being vulnerable opening one self to it’s teaching. That phase is called birth.
At no point does love every stike you- and no love should not hurt- uncomfortable- but from my opinion it should not hurt —that is called birth that is a process it end eventually.
define love for yourself.
Ps: my dog of 15 years has since past past earlier this last year …. it hurt very much …but it was not love that that was lost but his physically presence …….miss him very much
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