Monday, April 2, 2007

What is love?

And I'm not talking about that stupid song they keep playing in the movie A Night at the Roxberry. I probably shouldn't have admitted to even watching that. But seriously, how many times have we heard this question? How many times have we asked it of ourselves? "How will I know if it's love?" we say to ourselves. Or better yet, "How is love supposed to feel?"

Well, here's my answer: You will know love when you feel it. You will know, because you will no longer have to ask. Love simply is. It's not something that you can track down or make better with eloquent prose. It is, and when it is, you will know it.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I don't think you know love when it starts -- because infatuations start that way and then either waft away or are dissolved in introspection.

But I believe that you will know it is love and it was love all along at the end - yours or his. And I mean "the end" as your final breath, final thought, final reflection.

What you feel for that special person as you live beside him is simply...life and trial, tribulations and (hopefully) joy of living with him, striving and grieving, laughing and crying with him. Now and then you'll have a moment when you stop and try to define that warm-and-fuzzy feeling inside you but life will just nudge you forward and you'll just bask in its memory.

But at the end, when you're holding his hand or he's holding yours and life is fading, you will definitely know what love is and that you had it and gave back it all along.

cillakay said...

When I was younger, I always hated hearing "you'll know when you're in love." No one would ever give a straight answer. So when I fell in love, I thought about how I could describe it if anyone ever asked me. This is part of what I came up with...

Love should not be blind. If you see your lover's flaws and know you could live with that flaw for sixty years without trying to change them, you are in love. If the other person would surrender everything they are to you, and you would never ask it of them. That is love. Letting the person you love be the person they are, without trying to force them into what you want them to be. That is love. Love is two halves making a whole, not one person subverting the other or forcing the other into a mold.

Love cannot exist without it's companions, alone it will surely die.
Love without trust is empty.
Love without friendship is lonely.
Love without faith is dry.

And the feeling should be reciprocal. Love yourself enough to not allow someone to force you into their ideal. If you or your lover want to change to make yourself a better person, that is great, but no one should ever force someone to be something they are not.

Tracey H. Kitts said...

Cilla,

That was beautiful. My thoughts exactly. To me love is that feeling I get when I look at him. It's what makes my heart stop for a second when he's near. It's that "thump, thump" that wakes us up sometimes in the middle of the night. You certainly sound like you get where I'm coming from.

Edipet,

I agree with what you said about infatuation. I believe that infatuation is blind, and love gives us insight.:)