"What does love mean to you? How would you describe it?"
Recently, I was asked this question. Scrambling through my mind, I was still not able to get a description out to explain the thought of love. I had all these ideas in my head, but when it came to putting it into a simple sentence, it just seemed impossible.
While going through my mind trying to find my words to describe what I believe love to be, I realized that I was flipping through all the definitions that I used to describe love as. I realized that my idea and definition of love has changed throughout the years of maturing and experience, including personal relationships and seeing the different kinds of love in the atmosphere around me. I realized that there wasn't a good definition that I could use universally to describe love. I realized that I couldn't describe love as just a feeling, but an act of doing. We do things in the act of love. We feel things in the act of love. We appreciate the things that are done for us because love is somewhere in that atmosphere. Love doesn't have to involve yourself and a relationship with another person. It can be with something you appreciate you doing. Maybe it is something that makes you happy and you enjoy. At the end of the day, love will be somewhere, somehow.
When I asked several people what they thought love was, they told me that the only way they could describe the idea of love was by giving an example. These examples were things that people did that either showed what love was or trying to describe the feeling of love.
"It's a jittery feeling in my stomach. It's like butterflies in my stomach."
"It's a feeling of being infatuated."
"It's like the person is perfect to me no matter the flaws."
"It's when you go over and beyond for someone to show that you care and that they are important to you."
"It's when you do little things for someone just to show that they came across your mind."
"It's when you put a lot of time and effort into someone/something."
"It's when you are comfortable with the person. It's when you can connect with the intellectually and emotionally on another level that you cannot do with others."
"It's a type of feeling that you have with the person that you don't have with other people."
"It's when the person is always on your mind because you wonder what they are doing."
"It's when you stop caring about yourself as much, but not completely, because you now have another priority in your life."
"It's when you're capable of growing with another person. It's when you both are growing together."
Reading through the different responses I got, I realized that we all are on different levels when it comes to our personal lives. This controls what we believe love to be in our life. Love is different for everyone, and that is okay. Love is something we are capable of sharing with another person, thing, and even our own selves. We can love someone. We can love something. We can love ourselves. That's the thing about love. It is everywhere, yet it is something that not everybody can obtain so easily. It takes time to develop. It takes experience and learning to figure out what this crazy idea of love is. How far can you think back to the first time you used the word 'love'? Remember the first time you said you loved a toy? And now as we grow older, we've come to saying phrases like, "I love you." Love changes as we grow.
It may change as we grow older, and it may be different in every person, but there is something that we all share when it comes to love.
Love is something that cannot be bought.
You cannot make someone love you, but at the same time, you cannot prevent love from happening. Love has no rules or borders. It comes, and sometimes it goes. It is something that we cannot really control sometimes, as much as we would love to. Love is behind all your emotions. It is what controls you and your actions. It is something capable of making your day the best or the worst. Love is something that works alongside with us, but independently. Love is it's own thing in this world.
