Love

Version 1.0 (just in case I edit down the road) **LONG READ ALERT** *Deep Breath* Just to speak on romantic love here (which is the OP / OT is talking about) as opposed to family/blood or love for your friends. I've seen a lot of responses and most of them are pretty vague which kind of comes with this territory but I'll (probably) end up getting more specific. With a lot of things involving emotions, the heart, the mind, and the like - there are no true absolutes (but a few things are so close they might as well be) For my vague bland version: Love is something special and shouldn't be thrown around lightly. Love is a deep intimate connection that joins the light and darkness of people. Furthermore, when you're in love you think nothing of taking in your partners darkness and trying 100% to extinguish it with your light. When you're in love you want nothing more than your partners happiness and well being. It is important to note there is a significant difference between love and mutual love (the later of the two is much more preferred). Just because love isn't returned doesn't mean you didn't love the person (that is a different discussion I won't delve into at the moment) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the intense more detailed version (shit is about to get real heavy the faint of heart should stop reading now if you've never been in love and want a picture of what it is like read on): When people bring up love it is typical to give a vague generally agreeable response or almost cop out - I've seen quite a bit of both and while understandable (hell I even waited a bit and gathered myself - if you're going to really talk about this do it right ya know?) I'll use the word partner quite a few times assuming that you're with someone and the feeling is mutual (either in reality or hypothetically) however it might be easier to substitute in "desired partner" or for those who haven't really gotten close to having this type of relationship with someone "hypothetical partner" or "person". Also my focus on this is more what you're doing and feeling for them since it is your love for them so there isn't much on what you're getting back from whomever. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Love is something deep very deep and it opens up a new world to you for better and unfortunately worse. Love makes you (to some degree) forsake logic and sense and just let something outside of you take control. Love makes you do some wonderfully crazy things in order to maintain and foster it. Love will make you want to intertwine their light and darkness into yourself. Furthermore, it makes you want to shine light on their darkness without them even having to ask. When you're in love their problems aren't a chore to you but something you want to take the time to address. When you love someone you devote yourself to protecting them, nurturing their needs, fostering their passions and creativity, and being their warrior. When you're in love with someone when they're upset you're also upset because someone or something impacted your other half negatively and when you're in love you can't really stand that. Love makes you passionate (passion can be expressed in various ways it doesn't always have to be an overly outward display) Love makes you selfless forsaking your own needs in favor of your partners Love makes you have an emotional and physical need for their presence Love makes you stress both in a healthy and unhealthy way Love makes you challenge yourself in ways you probably wouldn't otherwise Love makes you never want to allow your partner to leave your presence upset Love makes you deeply cherish the otherwise innocuous (small) things about your partner Love makes you want to learn everything about your partner and come up with ways to enhance them Love makes you happily willing to take on so many roles in your partners life Love makes you feel complete (for those who haven't had it when you do get it you will feel like there has been a part of you missing) Love makes you trust and communicate with your partner - you will share things with them you would nobody else Love is something that immeasurably enhances your life Love is when you ask "how is your day" you want more than just "fine" you really want them to highlight things in their day for you two to discuss - especially if something during their day has impacted them significantly (this doesn't necessarily mean you want to hear a literal play by play of their entire day) Love is when they are down and you drop everything in an instant in order to rectify the situation Love is strong - so strong that it makes you weak and you know what it is damn alright to be "weak" in this sense Love is when you value them for the totality of their being (this means their past, differing opinion(s) and interests, life philosophy) and do not judge them based on I'll do my best to put intangible love in the form of tangible things for a different angle and hopefully increased clarity and depth (note this does NOT mean you're an object or should view your partner as one) : Love makes you their .... Armor - you are their protector and you reinforce that armor every second of every day even when you're asleep Pillow - you are their soft spot; you both make them soft and when they're feeling vulnerable and when they want to rest their head you're there Canvas - you are there to allow them to foster their creativity, uniqueness, and values and give them a safe place to grow (this does not necessarily mean that you allow them to override your values) Battery - when life drains your partner through any number of things you are there to recharge and revitalize them Warrior - when your partner needs someone to help them fight off something you are there to do it relentlessly All of this is great and all but some people will ask - How do I know if I'm in love? (or for those who think they are but truly aren't this might be a smelling-salt to the heart and mind) For starters if little or none of the above light dissertation doesn't apply to you then you're not in love. You might WANT to do these things for someone but until you ACTUALLY do these things you're not in love. You're not in love until you see your partners darkness and past and still hold their light and beauty true (if their darkness and past is too much for you then you probably aren't in love with them because you're unwilling or unable to handle them fully) You're not in love until just seeing them smile (whether you caused it or not) lights up your entire day and existence You're not in love until they've shown you enough to truly know them much more than you can read in some vague dating website profile You're not in love until every fiber of your being is constantly seeking your partner's happiness (this doesn't mean you have to interact 24/7) You're not in love until "hey I need your help and I really need 100% of you for hours to get me through this" generates a response to the effect of "I'm here for as long as you need me - I'll chew through six hours of your problems and insecurities as a light snack" instead of "ugh there you go stressing about X again" Love however doesn't have a time - meaning there isn't a restriction on feeling love just because you've only been interacting with a person for a short time. Some people believe that you can't fall in love in weeks that it takes at least months I personally disagree on this. Some people will take months (or more) to feel this way while some finding the right person could go from "wow they're a nice buddy to hang with once in a blue moon" to "I need this person like I need oxygen" in a week (if deeper interactions take place and you see them for who they really are). I'm personally one of those that can go full into everything I just said on a wicked fast timetable. That being said I'll jump back to the OP for a second. If you've only had a few casual conversations you can sure as hell have a crush but to say you're in love is an insult to love entirely. I mean are a few conversations about "oh you go to college majoring in X" and "your favorite genre of music is Y" or even more "shallowly" those lovely 5-10 minute "hows your day conversations" really going to foster anything I've said above. I could probably go on a bit more but I've left a few strong doses of what my take on Love is here. To me this is kind of like a work of art where I don't feel I'm done but at the moment I don't know what more I'd like to add but if I think of something I'll consider an edit and/or a re-posting. Plus I think if I really went full blast I'd destroy some minds with an overload of some real. *micdrop* Signed, Napalm

I personally think I could have done much better and I might turn it into something much better but for now I'll give it a 5 or 6 out of 10. Hopefully I open an eye or two and help someone or two out. I don't know

that was pretty good not many people say I love you too me though >.<

No idea what love is, either its all just chemistry in our brains making us go crazy and do stupid things, or if its something else. But what I learn from all these year of my life about love, is, they don't last. Love fades. That feeling you have now, that pain that longing, get washed away as time goes by. It's a fragile house of cards, that crumbles as soon as one side started to have doubt about it. It'll evolve to obligation, then annoyance, then Imma kill you in your sleep. There is no 'forever ever after', there is no 'till the end of time', heck nowadays there is no 'till death do us part' as well lol.

Oh, I didn't meant to be depressing. People seems to tend to forget what comes after love, losing sight of the bigger picture. I see it in a different light tho. Love don't last, nothing last. You'd be lucky if it doesn't fade completely at your death bed, but I doubt that happen to 99.9% of us, pretty much the same like the dream of being the next Mark Zuckerberg. They are the outlier not the norm. Thus, thing that don't last is the most sweetest. When you realize it don't last and accepted that fact. You'll cherish every second of what you have even more now. Its easy to take things for granted when you feel it will last forever. :3

My grandparents were eachother's first partner and they stayed together until my grandpa died. His last words were "I love you" to my grandmother. So that does exist, too. But these days people prefer not to take responsibility and jump from relationship to relationship.