That's a hard question to answer, obviously. I tend to think about love and other abstract concepts that deal with human society and the psyche just like the average person yet I can't always put what I think into words. So I tend to look at how other people define love and see if I agree or not. A few quotes have stood out to me:
We come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.
Angelina Jolie
Love is missing someone whenever you're apart but somehow feeling warm inside because youre close in heart.
Anonymous
Love is giving someone your heart, knowing that they can destroy your whole world when you do that, but trusting that person not to do that". The I-conscience
Love knows no reasons, love knows no lies. Love defies all reasons, love has no eyes. But love is not blind, love sees but doesn't mind."
Anonymous
From a perfectly scientific standpoint, love is something our society has created in order to ascertain the survival of the human species (i.e. people in love usually get married and have babies). However, love, viewed from a spiritual perspective, is a force of nature that brings people together (whether it be romantic love or familial love or any other type) in order to make us learn things about one another and accept the differences that exist within our society.
Fairytale love, while something that many dream about (happily ever after and all that jazz) show us a perfect love, an ideal that we all seem to strive for at one moment or another, consciously, or unconsciously. That's why I really like Ms. Jolie's quotation. It negates this idea that there is a strict recipe for love; rather we must find it in ourselves to embrace whole-heartedly the vices and virtues of the one we love. The last quotation I think echoes that as well.
I picked the quote after hers because I have had that experience. It was a sunny, hot afternoon, and the annual back-to-school activities fair was happening. I was at my booth, trying to attract students to join/try out for my group. Suddenly, my vision was blocked because a hand had covered my eyes. Moving my fingertips over the hand on my face, I felt the length of the hand and figured out it was him. He had come to say goodbye before going to the city for the weekend to visit his friend. We chatted for a while then he kissed me goodbye and left. Of course, as he was walking away, I felt a little piece of myself go with him.
Later though, in the afternoon, I was over at my friends' suite, and while they were napping (we'd been up since 5 am that morning), I looked out the window at the setting sun, thinking about what he was doing. The next moment was like an epiphany, one of those moments when a calm realization washes over you and leaves you warm and happy on the inside. I remember I grabbed one of my notebooks and wrote a poem in the next ten minutes. The words just came to me as I dashed out each line with my blue pen. I still have the poem and everytime I see it, I remember that serenity, that awe and happiness that existed in that milisecond of time. He was gone but all I could think about was how I was just happy he was happy despite the fact that he was so far. That's when I realized I was falling in love.
"Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life." - Leo Buscaglia
What is you're definition of love?
Recommend
Comments (40)
love is happiness between 2 people?
kinda hard to describe =/
Love as they say is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud. Love is never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand it's own way. Love is not irritable or touchy. Love does not hold grudges and will hardly notice when others do it wrong. Love is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out. If you love someone, you will be loyal to them no matter what the costs. You will always believe in them, always expect the best in them, and will always stand your ground in defending them.
It's a lot simpler than what most people think.
I think love can be difficult.. but when it is; it's worth it.
Love is a game just meant to be played, love is a phrase just overly cliche. It's dominated by liars, and rule breakers, and those oh so terrible backstabbing fakers. It's a sad thing when it is only wanted, just to have it, and for it to be flaunted. Young ones are fooled into believing it is real, soon conscious of mistakes, next fear is what you feel. Love is a ploy, deceptive and strong, love is just a toy, and you are soon strung along. The endings are painful yet again you will start, to the end of more lies, tears, and yet another cruelly broken heart.
Love is the reason for most of all the hurt. Love is an excuse, to be treated like dirt.
I think I will do a blog about it!
love is love. :O
'nuff said!! :P
mouse xoxo
<333
Love is when everything you do, say, or think, is accompanied by considering how your significant other would feel, think, react, or be affected by it. With everything you type, everything you say, every task or journey you make, you're thinking about how it'll affect them. You're imagining what they would say if they were right beside you. You're imagining their every reaction to everything you're doing. And the key part of it all is, you know that they're doing the same for you.
"life without love is no life at all" kinda like your last quote.
Something very natural. That's why it's elusive. It can't be manufactured, it has to be discovered.
Love is when you put someone else before you, you would get hurt for them, you would do everything to protect them. Love is bliss.
Here is my answer.
When I was in 9th grade, I almost went to state performing this selection in speech/forensics (I was in poetry). It was, literally, about this exact same topic. Enjoy :)
"Say someone asked you why you love. How would you respond? Would
you respond immediately, listing the traits of someone you love? Or
would you remember an experience you and someone special shared? In
“Belated Valentine: A Work In Progress” by Steve Marsh the question of
why we love begins to be answered- but the answer is an answer you
would least expect.
Belated Valentine: A Work In Progress
By Steve Marsh
I woke this morning with that shadow feeling
I’d been dreaming significant dreams-
Strong and powerful, richly full of meaning
But I was unable to recall them, no matter how hard I tried
Chasing them only makes it worse,
Like groping for the other tennis shoe
Lost under the bed- just beyond my reach
Closing my hand on something,
To discover it is only so much dust and dog hair.
I closed my eyes,
Breathed deeply,
And reached for that familiar place.
But the universe asked me a question:
Why do I continue to love you?
And I begin to answer immediately because
Confidence is the feeling we have
Before we understand the situation.
Why in the face of all we have seen,
And failed to see in each other,
Do we persevere?
I begin to understand that it is a matter of pride.
And, pride is, after all,
What we have.
Vanity is what others have.
So, in pride or in vanity I offer:
I love you because I have always loved you.
And the universe knows this is not the whole truth.
It knows it like it knows we can’t pray a lie.
I try again.
I love you because of all we have been through together.
But the universe does not like this cliché any better.
It asks, with all the Aristotelian logic it can muster,
Do you not manifest “all that you have been through together?”
The universe knows, and will not let me get away with half a truth.
We have been through “all that”
Because we put each other through “all that”
It asks another question:
How can you assert love after all you have seen?
The helplessness after surgeries;
The weakness in the face of adversity;
The cowardice in the face of confrontation;
Weight gain,
Hair loss,
Reduced libido,
Nakedness at 40,
Nakedness at 50?
The knowledge that the final solution does not involve bean-o.
And I begin, in answer,
To list the qualities I admire in you:
Tolerance,
Patience,
Trust,
Faithfulness.
Forgiveness.
But the universe will not allow this equivocation either.
And because the universe is a big believer in the Socratic Method,
It asks
Why do I love my dog?
I confess to perceiving a similar list.
The universe sends me the spring songbirds early,
Who sing, and feed
Who show me community in bright colors
And high energy.
The birds know nothing of our sorrow.
And the universe asks again:
In the face of this sorrow, why do I continue to love you?
It is not because mothers are better than fathers.
It is not because women are better than men.
It is not because teaching is better than poetry.
It is not because daughters are better than husbands.
And slowly, the answer,
Or rather the understanding that there is no answer,
Begins to reveal itself to me.
There is no aetiology for love.
I do not love you because
I do not love you in spite of
I do not love you since
I do not love you in so much as
I do not love you for the reason that
There is no reason,
No logic,
No syllogistic proof.
It simply is.
I love you.
It comes about without cause
And with luck it is returned
Without cause.
That is why love fits more aptly into poetry than paint.
It is not revealed to the mind through the eye.
It comes to the heart, though the nose and the fingertips.
The old poet had it right.
“Do not go gentle…”
Even here in this moment of doubt
I don’t give up.
I do not go gentle,
Down by two in the bottom of the 9th
Two out,
Two on,
Two strikes.
I will take one more god damned pitch!
And even if I fail,
We will play again tomorrow.
The story of my life is told between parentheses
Which you open and you close.
And inside those parentheses is one word.
It is (Hope)."
Love to me is something that cant be put down into words. We all try so hard to describe it but thats just it, you can't describe it. Love is so much more powerful than words. Love is what consumes us everyday...No matter who the love is for. Child, parent, friend, pet, lover...There is no right way to describe it. I believe love is something different for every person. Love is the greatest thing on this earth. It hurts, it feels amazing, its scary, exciting.. It is the single most powerful emotion. Simply Amazing.
Love is... is a creepy comic strip which I thought this blog was going to be about.
I like Ms Jolie's quote too! No one in this world is perfect;>
Love is a complicated thing. Everything needs love. A person without love is just like empty and life becomes meaningless.Even though love sometimes is hurtful but we still willing to love.If anyone is interested in a few ideas on this topic, read my blog on it. I put it up about a few days ago and that can explain it better than I could right now, just because I'm lazy lol.
Love is a mystery no one is capable of ever fully understanding nor capable of defining. Just because our brains are you yet to come up with a scientific equation for love, it exists. It is beauty, it is terror. But it is the strongest and best emotion. A natural drug. A natural gift, and pain. It is better painted in metaphors than in straight up words.
for me, my body tells me i'm in love- my heart, literally! i feel a warm fuzzy feeling in my chest when i think about that person; i put my head on his chest and just smile and sigh and feel warmth and contentment. when this person hurts me, it feels like my insides are exploding. and when he's gone, when i know i won't see him for awhile, my chest hurts. it's weird, perhaps, but it sure makes it easy to figure out!
also, consciously, it's wanting to be close- wanting to know everything about him, and wanting him to know all about me. and feeling giving; i want to meet his needs, even if it means i can't meet my own. it's feeling selfless, and happy about it.
unfortunately, he doesn't quite get it
i don't believe that word
Love is me and you
;)
i am always surprised how much he loves me - pretty much every day
I had a similar epiphany this summer that's similar to yours. =)
Anything that fits the whole passage of 1 Corinthians 13 is love to me.