Love means . . .

"Love means never having to say you're sorry." - Erich Segal, Love Story

On VDay 2012, I was thinking about this quote and how horribly inaccurate it is. But yet it's the one that everybody quotes the most from that weepy, sappy movie.

I am not in a relationship so my thoughts may be null and void but I'm of the opinion that love means you're really good at saying you're sorry.

This isn't the groveling, "make it up to you to get back on your good side" kind of apologies. Those are manipulative and usually not wholly sincere. Those apologies make peace but don't build stronger relationships.

True apologies are offered not to mend fences but to recognize and understand what another is feeling. It's not admitting right or wrong but understanding that someone was hurt, misunderstood or saddened.

Which leads me to a more important definition of love. Love means practicing forgiveness over and over and over again.

I'm fairly certain that the best marriages are made up of two people that are really good at practicing forgiveness. Every. Single Day.