the love study

npr recently did a series on how positive thoughts contain healing powers of sorts.  particularly, the study was in regards to how we are all connected to the world and people around us, touched by all things spiritual and physical and even those invisible.  in part 3 of the series, they explored the idea that two people who are connected by, and in, love can have very calming, positive health effects for both partners.  one particular couple had been married for ten years and were still so apparently in love that they immediately became the perfect specimen for such research.  both were hooked up to electrodes measuring blood flow and skin reactivity and told that over the next few minutes images of their partner would randomly appear on screen before them.   changes in both partners' nervous system responses were measured across each image they viewed and so the theory became gradually more and more supported with each blip of the monitors:  it is possible for two people to be so linked that the bond, and in this case love, they share is both undeniable and physically unbreakable.  

so of course this article peeled back the layers to expose the inner dreamer in me yet again, the dreamer that quite frankly i am so thankful to never have lost.  because i can hardly wait for the day i feel that powerful of a bond again with someone to where even ten years later that love is so palpable it could set all sorts of monitors and graphs afire...though it will be so evident that no doctors or researchers will need to confirm it.  and though i remain grounded in the ever-present nows of my life, i believe the love study is simply this: love is vital and, more than just existing, it thrives beyond physical boundaries when it's real.