What is love....?

[trouts mom]

Originally Posted by Snake_Lady

Oh wow, that is a very difficult question indeed. I've been in love several times, and currently am. But describing it is difficult.

Love is an emptiness in your soul when that person is not around.... it is a deep down desire to share with them the most personal details of your life.... it is a feeling of euphoria (not sexual, emotional).... it is acceptance of the best and the worst qualities..... it is trust...love empowers you, embraces you within its arms, it is a warmth deep down inside.

You know..... when you are in love, you know. Its unlike any other feeling... it is passionate yet gentle, hunger yet satisfaction, primal yet emotional, emptiness yet fullness.

Love is different for every person.... some can love with their entire being, others can only give parts.

It is the urge to grow old together

That is a perfect explanation

 

[spudsmom]

Originally Posted by LDG

I wonder if it is that love grows out of the friendship - or the love was always there, and you grow into your realization of it?

...Because Gary says he loved me the minute he saw me, and I believe him. I made him wait 12 years because.... because I needed to experience a lot of life and myself in other relationships before I was ready to "live love." I told boyfriends I loved them, but there was never a doubt in my mind that I didn't really. A kind of love, I guess - but not the "I want to get old with this person" love.

I married a man I knew I wasn't in love with.... because I'd never had a relationship that lasted much less than a year and I didn't feel like bothering anymore, and I was in a foreign culture, and they had the "you grow into love" philosophy. I didn't.

I have to agree with the others. When you're in love, you know it.

When Gary and I got back together after 12 years, he was in Seattle, I was in NY. We talked on the phone every night for 3 months. I flew to Seattle on Christmas Day. He asked me to marry him, I said yes, and we were married the next day. The feeling was so literally electric, I could physically feel his presence wherever he was in the house and knew exactly where he was.

I'm with Cat, but I take it even further. I'd not only give up my life for the people I truly love, I'd take lives if necessary (and I think that would be a lot harder for me).

He's my best friend, I love spending time with him. Funny movies are funnier with Gary, the sun shines brighter with Gary. I love his breath - even when he hasn't just brushed his teeth. His smell is comforting. I want to do everything with him and share everything with him. I love learning new things and experiencing new things with him. I have no secrets, no shame, I want him to know everything about me, and there's nothing he could tell me about himself that would make me think less of him. His flaws, fears, and weaknesses are things that endear him to me, not things that make me go "Hunh....." In this love, there are no "wrongs." In fact, I think that for me the best way to describe it, really, is that is isn't a "feeling" at all, so much as it is a way of being together. It's a sense of wanting to make each other happy, not be made happy, and wanting to be better people, and finding positive and supportive ways to do this.

But for me... I had to love and respect myself first, and I had to feel complete and whole and perfectly happy alone first. Then I was ready to "be" real love - because after having written all of this, I've come to the conclusion that "real love" really is more a way of being, than something you're "in."

Yup...that's what I meant to say!

That is the best way I've ever heard it put, and it is totally true. You said it so well!

 

[rachelh1018]

That IS a tough question. I've thought I was in love when I was younger, however, I've only REALLY been in love once. I can only tell you that you will know the difference when you feel it.

I can't really describe it, because you always feel the crush stage at the very beginning. Love is something that grows with time. I really really liked my boyfriend in the beginning, but I'm deeply in love with him now. It takes a few months getting to know the person to really tell. I've been with my boyfriend for seven years.

So here's my answer:

You know it's love when you can't picture your life without the other person. You look past all the things that would typically annoy you because for some reason when this person does it, you don't mind. You have this feeling deep in your heart that almost aches for this person. You'll feel completely whole, like something was once missing in your life that you never even realized was gone until you met this person. You feel the greatest joy when you're around them, and you feel like no matter what happens in life, you'll be able to face it together. There's more, but I can't think of it right now...