Love is a Decision, Not a Feeling

Love is a decision, not a feeling.  I had a conversation with a dear girlfriend.  We went to see "The Young Victoria" and marveled at the beauty of the love story between Edward and Victoria.  She said to me with a sincere, yearning heart...not to mention a brightness/sadness in her eyes "that is the kind of love I want...something epic, an adventure". So she is looking for the ONE and is convinced that the ONE is out there for her.  She believes that she has yet to find her soul mate, and when she does she wants to feel it.  She is in her early forties and a divorcee.  My response to her?  "My friend, love is a decision, not a feeling".  Not the response she was looking for, clearly.  I am a divorcee as well, but I have learned enough about love to know that there is no perfection and that your love story can be what you make of it.  I don't believe in epic romances and soul mates.  She looked like she pitied me for feeling this way so I proceeded to explain myself a bit more clearly.  I don't believe in the THE ONE theory.  I think decisions we make in life shape what the next step will be.  I believe in a divine Creator whose plan it is to prosper us and not to harm us.  I believe that love is amazing.  I believe that I can look into my husbands eyes and get lost for a moment in time.  Now...had my mentality through our first tumultuous two years of marriage, very tumultuous, been that this could not be the one for me.  "there is no way that this is my soul mate", I never would have fought long enough to see clearly through the eyes of my heart and of my mind.  I would have walked away.  I would have missed the greatness in my husband.  I would have missed the love story that we decide to create everyday.  I would have missed out on fighting together, and working together to  fulfill the vow that we made before The Most High.
She was still not happy, and we closed our conversation with me saying "Just keep an open heart and an open mind that love does not have to be a great adventure, or big enough for a Hollywood movie to be real and to be worthy".  She smiled...unmoved.  I smiled, moved to tears, gave my husband a big hug and exhaled in gratitude.