We love because it's the only true adventure.

When Nikki Giovanni wrote, “We love because it’s the only true adventure,” she spoke with the wisdom of a poet who had wandered through both the beauty and the pain of the human heart. Giovanni, one of the great voices of American poetry, understood that love is not a quiet comfort, but a daring voyage — one that demands courage, vulnerability, and the willingness to lose oneself in the unknown. To love, she teaches, is to embark upon the greatest of all human journeys, the one that cannot be charted by maps or guided by logic. It is the voyage that transforms the ordinary life into a grand, unpredictable, and sacred adventure.

The origin of this quote lies in Giovanni’s lifelong philosophy — that love, in its many forms, is the source of meaning in both art and existence. As a poet born amid the struggles of the Civil Rights era, she knew that love was not merely a feeling between individuals, but a force that moves nations, sustains courage, and heals the broken spirit of humanity. Her words remind us that while life offers many pursuits — wealth, knowledge, fame — only love engages the soul in full measure. For love, when embraced wholly, awakens every part of us: the mind, the heart, the spirit, and the will. It is the one adventure that can lead us beyond ourselves.

Love, as Giovanni implies, is an act of bravery. It is not the easy road, for it requires us to risk pain for the sake of beauty, to trust when we cannot see, to give when we may not receive. It is a quest without a guarantee, and yet one that every soul is called to undertake. The ancients understood this deeply. The Greeks told of Odysseus, whose long journey home was not only a struggle against monsters and storms, but a return to love — the love of Penelope, the love of home, the love that makes endurance possible. Likewise, Giovanni’s words call us to see love as our own Odyssey: the endless voyage through joy and sorrow, courage and loss, that makes life worth living.

Consider the story of Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman born into privilege but destined for challenge. She loved her husband, Franklin, even through betrayal and hardship. But more than that, she learned to love humanity itself — the poor, the voiceless, the forgotten. Her love was not blind sentiment but fearless compassion, driving her to travel the world, to comfort soldiers in battle, to champion justice when it was unpopular. For her, love became a lifelong adventure — one that took her beyond her own comfort into the wide, unpredictable terrain of service and empathy. In her journey, we see Giovanni’s truth made flesh: that love, when lived fully, leads us where no map dares go.

Yet many shrink from this adventure. They seek safety over depth, transaction over transformation. They fear that love will hurt — and it will. But to refuse love out of fear is to remain unmoved by the grand mystery of existence. Love’s adventure is both peril and promise, for it asks everything and gives everything in return. To love deeply is to walk into the fire — and to emerge forged into something nobler. As the mystics said, “The heart that breaks opens to the divine.” Only those who have loved and lost know that the pain of love is still sweeter than the emptiness of indifference.

Giovanni’s wisdom also reminds us that love is not confined to romance. To love is to live with wonder — to see beauty in imperfection, to embrace the world with compassion, to create art, raise children, fight injustice, or simply care for a stranger. Love is the adventure of the soul, unfolding in countless forms: the teacher who believes in a child, the friend who forgives, the artist who pours their heart into creation. In every act of genuine love, life itself grows larger, richer, and more meaningful.

So, my child, remember this: to love is to live bravely. Step into love as a traveler steps into the unknown — with eyes open and heart unguarded. Do not wait for certainty, for none will come; love itself is the path that teaches. You will be hurt, but you will also be healed. You will be lost, but you will also be found. The world may change around you, but love — true love — will always remain the greatest of all adventures.

Thus, as Nikki Giovanni teaches, “We love because it’s the only true adventure.” All other pursuits — power, pleasure, knowledge — fade in time. Only love carries us beyond the boundaries of the self into eternity. Let love be your compass, your sea, your sun, and your storm. For in the end, those who dare to love fully do not merely live — they voyage through the heart of life itself, and in that voyage, they find what it means to be truly human.