This Thing Called Love

[Puddle]

I couldn't find everyone's views on this in any post so I'll just ask:

What's your personal definition for love?

[Day_Walker]

an emotion which causes people to do things they cannot explain and often dont make sense. In its basic sense it is relating to person on a higher level, where you have a connection with them. This emotion creates other feelings such as security and euphoria. Love creates a deep emotional attachment so that a person feels they are destined to be with that person.

 

I think thats a general idea of what people really think

 

Personally I feel that its a feeling that we invoke ourselves based on our preferences and past experience typically with our family. That will determine how we choose to see what love is and isnt.

[eimono]

You know, after having my GF leave me on saturday I've struggled with this.

 

Do I love her?

 

I asked myself well, what is love.

 

Is "things I love about her" mean I love?

No, because I can just as easy list things I hate.

 

Is "the way she makes me feel" love?

No, because there are bad times just as much/if not more then good feelings.

 

Is "the fact she loves me too" love?

No, love cannot depend on another to be true.

 

Is "being willing to do anything to show you love them" real love?

Not really, you can be infatuated with someone and still not really "love" who they are. They say love is blind, but I think we are in fact blind to love.

 

Is it "accepting her for who she is and still wanting to be with her" love?

This sounded like a winner, however, truth of the matter is I wanted her to changes some bad things about herself. Plus my fear of being alone doesn't

mean I won't leave even if she has problems.

 

None of these things alone can be a test for true love. So the best I can come up with is this...

 

Love is acceptance of who the other person is, desire for the other's company no matter what you do, and most of all love is not dependent on reciprocation by the other party.

 

If you know you want to be with that other person, and it doesn't matter what they think or feel about you, then I think you truly love them. This goes without saying if they hurt/abuse you that you should not be with them. Only that you love them regardless of what happens.

 

This said, all to often I've found myself loving another person only to find that I didn't really know them. And what I loved about them was something I had projected. Or feelings I had wanted to be there so I made them up. I think true love takes a long time to acquire and know if it truly is love.

 

I only hope, someday, to have a better answer for this question. Sorry if I am down about love right now. Just wanted to make sure it was said that love isn't aways fun and happy.

[RayKay]

Love is something that truly can vary from person to person, and from experience to experience.

 

What I considered love at 15 - sacrificial, obsessive, the answer for all...is definitely not how I believe, or know love, now.

 

Love is action, not just emotion, love is something that enhances, not takes away, from your life, love is respectful, faithful. Love is not being blind to the flaws in your partner, but rather embracing or working with them and accepting them. Love is not hoping to change the other person, love is communication, love is something that is steady, but always changing, growing, and without nurturing - fading. Love cannot solve everything...sometimes love is knowing that the commitment you have to one another takes place over the ego or the selfish side of ourselves. Love is compromise, not sacrificing your own self or needs always. Love is acceptance but not hindrance.

 

And while I suppose you can love without having it returned, I would say true love is when both partners are on the same wavelength, journeying the same road, have the same goals and values with one another and where it is reciprocated...when you are life partners.

 

Basically we all want to be loved for whom we ARE, and when we love, it should be with that same feeling behind it - we love the other for whom THEY are.

[Beec]

Love is an emotional attachment. It is about how you feel. And one you get past that part of the definition, it gets more difficult to describe.

[pizzachick13]

Love is the pure ecstasy you feel when you are around someone, thinking about someone or even just knowing someone. Love is the innate feeling of wanting to ravage someone but ever so gently. Love is the only thing that keeps you in the arms of your lover when really you feel like bouncing off the walls you have so much energy.

 

Love is a great many things to many different people, and can only be fully described when you are in it... but even then, you never can seem to find words strong enough or beautiful enough or sweet enough to describe it.

 

Sappho...

[djedix]

Respect, Trust, Confidence, Security = Love.... wow a relationship with all that is an amazing thing...

[JC2006]

To love someone is to feel extreme positive empathy for them. Their happiness profoundly affects your happiness. Their sadness profoundly affects your sadness. Their emotional state and well-being affects your emotional state and well-being in like manner (plus-plus, minus-minus).

 

To be in love with someone is to experience extreme emotions for someone. Someone's positive attitude towards you makes you euphoric. Someone's negative or indifferent attitude towards you makes you despondent.