Love or Lust

How does one know the real difference between love and lust? Do we have to wait until the devastating break up where you lose absolutely everything and are left crying yourself to sleep wondering "why"? Is it when all the imaginative ideas you've once had of this person have just magically disappeared? Where you are stuck wondering what the hell you are doing with this person you once saw your future with and now you cannot even stand watching them as they eat their breakfast or how they sit on the couch? How you do you figure out what love it?

What is love?

Everyone has their one preference of who they want to fall in love with. Tall. Athletic. Intelligent. Funny. Has nice teeth. There is no right or wrong. But how do you know that the love is really real? I for one have not been able to ever figure that out still, with my 22 years walking on this earth. Is it even real? Does love actually exist? Or is it something we all have a grand idea of what we would like it to be and we settle for whatever we find to be remotely close to fitting the description we have stamped in our brains.

Our families are supposed to love us. Our friends. Our faith. But if you are like me, you know that some of the people we have once exchanged the glorious saying "I love you" with unexpectedly prove us wrong. Destroy every ounce of what we have thinking that love is real. Our mothers leave. Our friends decide they no longer like who we are changing into as we grow up and find our path of life calling our names. We decided to change our sexuality and are now being looked at funny and people are putting their noses up to us as we walk through our church.

So we all obsess with lust. I mean why not. It is so much easier. Being attracted to a person who we find charming. Tolerable being around for a minimum amount of time. But eventually, that hour glass runs empty. We no longer are fond of them. They seem less and less attractive. The spark just goes out. It was fun while it lasted. It was something you saw going the whole way. But it wasn't meant to be. Attraction is not commitment nor is it adoration. Love is when you never mind seeing them eat their breakfast obnoxiously every single morning, mouth wide open, having a conversation with you as they shovel spoon fills of cereal in their mouth. You think they are cute anyways. Love is when you don't care that they put their feet up on the living room table where you set your drinks every single time they sit on the couch. You still hop right on their lap and give them a hug and kiss.

So when do we find the difference between these two words love and lust? Is there a time limit we have to experiment with those who we think might be the one. Do we just settle for the closest thing we are going to get to our definition of our lover?

Guess we can just keep on trying.