L-O-V-E

I recently re-watched Aladdin for the millionth time and it struck me how invested - as invested as I assume I was the first time I watched it - I was (and am) in the relationship of Aladdin and Jasmine. I stared at my screen like I imagine toddler me would have, my eyes completely in a trance with the Disney gorgeousness. As a blogger who claims to be a hopeless romantic, it shouldn't be a surprise that I fall in love with love on the screen- not forgetting the love I adore in the books I read.

We're raised to believe in love, and to trust it- to love it. And for good reason, I think. We are humans who should be awesome to the best of our abilities and (I aim for awesomeness simply for my own happiness and so I believe my own accepting of myself is one of the most gorgeous things but) we deserve to share this people- and we do so through our families, our friendships and our relationships.

The reason I have always been a hopeless romantic is because these romantic situations our eyes grow wide at and our hearts go gooey at, are based around admirable characteristics such as sincerity, thoughtfull-ness, humbleness, modest charm and sweet motives. We adore it because we seek to find people and be people who are happy and full of characteristics that are pure and positive.

In turn, I adore that L-O-V-E that Nat King Cole sings about because love should bring out my best qualities too. We want and hope to be and hope we are sincere, thoughtful, humble, perform modest charm and have sweet motives. All of my life, I have wanted to be the best person I could be by knowing I can do it on my own. And I can. In a completely inspirational, independent kind of speech, I would say: I don't need love to prove my self worth. But, for this post, I am hoping we can put aside this, but not ignore it. It's a different idea that can play at the same time- if we want it.

Back to the idea of love bringing out awesome qualities in us. When we have something we're proud of (which we all should have!) - our bright personality; our humour; our natural way of being genuine - it shines in everything we do. With someone to love us - to cherish these qualities we have - they should shine, right? They should make us feel brighter or funnier or more genuine. (Again: we can do this by ourselves too, and I think I do!)

I love watching Jasmine and Aladdin's love because it's sweet and humble and sincere. (Spoilers!) Jasmine falls in love with the Aladdin who is the "street rat", because that's not what she sees. Because her motives are not harsh. And Aladdin falls in love with Jasmine, wanting her to believe he is the best person she wants him to be. Only he doesn't need to try like he thinks. That's something about love: Love should love who we really are.

Love is something, ay.

Shirts & Shorts,

The Girl in the Moonlight.