what is love?

I will save you the suspense...I don't have the answer! I do have a few ideas though:) Liked some people before, but truly loved very few...up until a few years ago, not sure I even knew what being in love meant. Still may not.

Was reading a friend's post just now...and my girlfriend and I were discussing this tonight too...funny coincidence, eh? Something I read once...it's a perspective that sums up my thoughts better than I could ever do...

Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion…. That is just being “in love,” which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.

-Louis de Bernieres

Love for me is about the small, seemingly insignificant, moments...because I believe that those will be the ones that I will never forget. It is not about all the exciting places we go, the things we do...those are simply the "filler"...to be able to be together and not feel the need to say something to fill the uncomfortable silence often felt between strangers...it is truly the little things that matter most, methinks. I could write many more "silly" things to try to impart my feelings...but I will spare you my idiocy:P

Perfect love is rare indeed - for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain.

-Leo Buscaglia

My friend writes correctly...about wanting the best for that person, always thinking about them. I haven't been in that many serious relationships, so many of my ideas are "theoretical" in nature...or maybe idealistic...but I prefer it that way. I think it is better to try to attain one's dreams...and maybe fail in the process...then to give up without trying. So maybe, as with many other aspects of my life, I am not terribly realistic...in my ideas...expectations...but love is one of those things that I do not want to settle for something less than what I wish for. Someone once told me that I may end up being bitter and disappointed...but I think I will be more so for letting that ideal go...

Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care, but for another gives its ease, and builds a Heaven in Hell's despair.

-William Blake