Unfortunately, it looks like I haven’t been able to retrieve any posts from the last two years. They all seem to have been eaten by the invisible cyberspace monster!

Oh well, having a completely new start could be a good thing too, right? 

I’ve been thinking about today’s topic for awhile actually, but decided to save it for my Valentine’s Day blog, since it’s about love.

To cut a long story short, I believe this word, and all the connotations that accompany it, are overused.

Before I get too involved in this and begin to ramble too much, I should probably clarify exactly what I define love to be. Love is not a feeling, or an emotion, it is an action. It’s something you have to work on every single day of your life. Something you have to keep building up, otherwise it disappears.

Most people, including myself until I started overthinking, would not hesitate to say "I love those shoes", or"I love pizza", when really what they mean is that they like them, admire them, or enjoy them.

While it might not be so dangerous with regard to shoes and pizza and other inanimate object without feelings, I believe that the overuse/underuse or misuse of the word love can certainly be harmful when it comes to people.

Telling someone "I love you" is obviously a very significant, intimate part of your relationship (and by relationship, I’m not just referring to spouses either), and will more than likely change the way the person sees you, and behaves towards you. It brings you closer together, but also puts more responsibility on both parties. Responsibility that can sour a relationship if it is foisted upon it too soon.

One of my pet peeves is receiving cards from acquaintances and extended family members which say "Dear Holly *appropriate greeting and message here* Love, Great Uncle Keith.". I’m sure Great Uncle Keith is very kind and well-intentioned, but as he hasn’t seen me since I was 4, couldn’t tell me my favourite colour, and probably wouldn’t even recognise me if he saw me in the street, how on earth can he possibly love me? He doesn’t even know me!? Perhaps Great Uncle Keith felt obligated to write this, because he felt that simply saying "From" was impersonal. He might be right, but he could have said "Happy Birthday", "Congratulations", "Merry Christmas" or something else instead!?

I agree with Margaret Atwood, who was perceptive enough to use her poem "Variations on the Word Love" to describe it as "a word to plug holes with". Something you say without really thinking about what it means to you, or what it might mean to the other person. Something you say because you think you should.

It’s all very well to do this, and to tell someone you love them IF YOU REALLY DO (In fact you should. Now. Right now.), but otherwise, don’t plug holes with it.

Congratulations, clever visitor, for unearthing where this blog, formerly located at http://kiwifairy.awkwardmuffin.com, has moved to!

I’ve left quite a few people comments to let them know, so I’m hoping the word will spread from that and I’ll start getting visitors again!

Obviously it wasn’t my intention to randomly disappear without a trace, but due to an accidental email glitch, I didn’t get any notice of the impending expiration of awkwardmuffin.com…until it had already happened! Thankfully it was just the domain which expired, and not everything else as well!

I hope you like my new, somewhat more mature and personal sounding URL. I do. A lot. Otto’s still my host though, which is good, coz he’s extremely helpful!

I had great fun this afternoon, when everything finally got reinstated, going through all my broken links and changing them so that they work again. I THINK I got everything, but if you spot anything funny looking please let me know.

I’ve taken advantage of my new location and done a complete revamp of my entire blog. thanks to a plugin entitled WP Suicide, all my old posts have gone bye-bye (not before I backed them up on my computer though!) and I have a fresh, but somewhat naked looking, website! YAY!

So who’s going to be the first comment…!?

EDIT: Yeah. I fail life. I just realised that not only does the WP Suicide plugin delete all the POSTS, but the PAGES as well! I tried to restore them from my backup but I couldn’t get it to work! GAH! *is not impressed with self.* I’m going to try and redo as much as I can, but who knows if I’ll be able to get stuff back! Brilliant.