Love is.......?

WHAT is LOVE?

I liked this when I read it and had to post it to open this up. LOVE...it appears to be so simple. It is one of the most overused and yet, most misunderstood words in our vocabulary. WHAT is love?

" Love is a force of nature. However much we may want to, we can not command, demand, or disappear love, any more than we can command the moon and the stars and the wind and the rain to come and go according to our whims. We may have some limited ability to change the weather, but we do so at the risk of upsetting an ecological balance we don't fully understand. Similarly, we can stage a seduction or mount a courtship, but the result is more likely to be infatuation, or two illusions dancing together, than love." 

Published on November 25, 2011 by Deborah Anapol, Ph.D. in Love Without Limits

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/love-without-limits/201111/what-is-love

According to this article, it's uncontrollable. It's something that enters unannounced and can exit in the same fashion.  This would support 'falling' in and out of love. It just happened. I just woke up one day, and I didn't love you anymore. 

Let's go back to basics:

love

  [luhv]  Show IPA

noun

1.

a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

2.

a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.

3.

sexual passion or desire.

4.

a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart.

5.

(used in direct address as a term of endearment, affection, or the like): Would you like to see a movie,love?

Verb

16.

to have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for (another person).

17.

to have a strong liking for; take great pleasure in: to love music.

18.

to need or require; benefit greatly from: Plants love sunlight.

19.

to embrace and kiss (someone), as a lover.

Passion, tender, strong 'liking'. A lot of lofty words that could mean very different things to different people in different situations. I think that is what makes this so complicated. This clearly states though, that love is an emotion .So wait, once I fall in love with someone, I don't just love them forever?.....

Now this is interesting...It is sort of saying the same thing. Yeah, you can't help who you fall in love with, BUT you DO help if you continue to LOVE this person. Love becomes a CHOICE. 

I took this next excerpt from one of my favorite books...'A Purpose Driven Life' by Rick Warren.

Love is a choice and a commitment. You choose to love or you choose not to love.

Today we’ve bought into this myth that love is uncontrollable, that it’s something that just happens to us; it’s not something we control. In fact, even the language we use implies the uncontrollability of love. We say, “I fell in love,” as if love is some kind of a ditch. It’s like I’m walking along one day and bam! – I fell in love. I couldn’t help myself.

But I have to tell you the truth – that’s not love. Love doesn’t just happen to you. Love is a choice and it represents a commitment.

There it is, that  C word. lol COMMITMENT. We are throwing a lot of terms around. choice, and choosing, commitment, changes, CHANCES. 

I think this will be a great and interesting way to segway into Valentine's Day. Let's get this started..I want your thoughts..What is love???

Mood music! What is love...Haddaway!