Did you know that research shows colder weather makes people want to get together.
In centuries past, this may have been a primitive survival instinct. Get in a relationship so you wouldn't be alone in the winter. You know, the share body heat idea.
Fortunately, we have central heat now, but getting into relationships increases in the fall.
We now know that testosterone levels in both men and women jump up in the fall. When testosterone levels increase, sex drive increases too. It's likely that's what drives the desire to be in a relationship.
National First Love Day
Yes, this is the day to remember that first rush of feeling that made your heart pound—that first spark of attraction with someone you fancied. We've all had that feeling.
Rarely does that first love end up being our last love, but there is a song that celebrates that. Barry White release his song, You're The First, The Last, My Everything in 1974, and it hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Soul Singles chart.
I read that this holiday was created to remind us where it all started in our own lives and in the lives of others.
The day is supposed to remind us of the first time we felt love in a romantic relationship. Like I said, these memories could be good or bad, but that first love was a rite of passage.
Love is the emotion we feel when we care about someone else. We give our love, hoping it will be reciprocated.
Through the centuries poets have written about love. Philosphers have expounded about love. Singers have sung about it. Like the movie Love, Actually says: "Love really is all around us."
By the way, in case you wonder about people who end up with their first love. I read a statistic that said 97% of people who married their first love think they will be with them until they die.
By the way, in case you wonder about people who end up with their first love. I read a statistic that said 97% of people who married their first love think they will be with them until they die.
My grandparents met when they were children. This was in the late 1890's. Weird, I know.
When my grandfather was a young man, employed, and of an age to marry, he ended up having to support his widowed mother and his sister who never married.
When he was in his early forties, his mother died, leaving him as the sole support of his sister, but he was tired of waiting.
He bought a beautiful ring with a large solitaire ruby, took a train back to Mississippi, and found my grandmother in th same small town where he'd left her.
She lived alone and made her living as a seamstress. His brother had traveled with him and served as his witness. They were married the next day.
Theirs was a first love. Theirs was a true love. True love lasts through thick and thin, and isn't diminished by distance.
(In case you're wondering, his sister Nancy never married. She lived with my grandparents until her death. I found out before my mom died that Nancy Jane had loved a young man, but he had died. She never loved again.)
(In case you're wondering, his sister Nancy never married. She lived with my grandparents until her death. I found out before my mom died that Nancy Jane had loved a young man, but he had died. She never loved again.)
Maybe my grandparents' love story is what inspired my love of romance. That could be why I write romantic stories.
First love is the trope in several of my books like Deceptively Yours.
By the way, I'm one of the women who is delighted that my first love in high school—a mere infatuation—didn't end up being my last love.
I was like the traveler in the yellow wood on the road that diverted. I took a different path which made all the difference and gave me a wonderful husband and a wonderful life.
Have a marvelous September!
(Joan Reeves is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program, which means she may earn a small commission if you click her link to her book on Amazon.)
Like you, I'm glad my first love wasn't my last one. Nice post, Joan!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Liz!
ReplyDeleteI love this!
ReplyDeleteWhy, thank you very much! I appreciate it. Have a wonderful day.
DeleteI'm also pleased my first love (or was it only a crush?) didn't work out. But when you hear how Queen Elizabeth was infatuated with and later married her husband, Duke Philip--AND their marriage lasted 70+ years, you know first loves are possible.
ReplyDelete