Everyone talks about love all the time as something beautiful and usual that each one of us will experience at least one in their life. But what is love actually?
Love being the main theme to thousands songs, movies, books, poems and other kind of art, is not just a feeling sometimes it’s positive and sometimes negative. Its positive side represents human kindness, compassion, affection and its negative side represents human selfishness and egotism. Love is a set of emotions and behaviors such as passion, commitment, care, protectiveness, attraction, affection and trust. Love is the reason that keeps people together.
Saying to someone “I love you” is really easy but most of the time we don’t mean it cause we don’t really know what it means. We usually say we love someone out of excitement when in reality we don’t know them. So why do you love them? If you love someone for their looks, it’s called obsession. If you love someone for their kindness, it’s admiration. If you love them for their money, it’s interest. If you love someone just cause they love you then it’s empathy. If you love someone despite their flaws it’s genuine acceptance, on the other hand if you love someone through thick and thin it’s genuine commitment. If you love someone for their mind and knowledge it’s intellectual attraction. If you love someone deeply, even when you are apart, it’s emotional connection. If you prioritize their happiness over your own, its selflessness. If you love them for the way they make you laugh, it’s entertainment. If you love them for your shared experiences, memories it’s nostalgia. But if you are confused and ask yourself again and again daily ‘Why do I love them?’ then it’s definitely love.
When we hear about love the first thing that comes up to our minds is the romantic way but when it comes to love it’s a lot more than that. Ancient Greek philosophers identified 6 forms of love: familial love, friendly love, romantic love, self-love, guest love and unconditional love.
There are some types of love: friendship: The kind of love where you like someone and share a certain degree of intimacy.
Infatuation: This love often involves intense feelings of attraction without a sense of commitment Passionate love: This form of love is marked by intense feelings of longing and attraction Unrequited love: This kind of love happens when one person loves another one but gets nothing in return.
One of the biggest tragedies in life is that you will always be loved more than you’ll ever know. Some stranger on the street loved your smile, someone in your class likes your presence even if you only exchange a few words or none at all. Someone who used to be your friend wishes you were still close even if you were friends years ago would love to be with you today. Someone at work is miserable when you aren’t there to brighten up their look. Someone missed you today, they noticed when you were gone and loves you when you are there and when you are nowhere to be found. We never know when someone feels this way, we never know how important we are for some people.
It’s amazing how when you meet someone they can change your life. Before they came life felt more stressful and a little dull or even lonely. But then they came into your life and suddenly everything seemed brighter, colorful and full of life. This person brought your spark back, they bought hope, and they helped you see things in a new way. They made you notice the beauty in small everyday moments that till now missed. It’s unbelievable how their presence make everything better, they make you feel less anxious and stressed out, they make you believe in love again. It can take one person, just one to change your entire world, their laughter their kindness make everything feel new makes you feel more alive. But unfortunately that’s just the begging. At first in every relationship the conversations are endless you always laugh, everything is new and that excites both of you, you have the illusion that you discovered the deepest connection. But after a while everything becomes boring. The silence between both of you fills the space. You start arguing over little things, you miss the magic of the love you once had. After a while someone new comes to your life you feel like they have all the answers, they bring back all those feelings, but its important to remember that not long ago you felt like that with someone else. Our feelings become ordinary with the time, you feel excited only with people you don’t know for a lot time. But in reality real feelings come when you don’t have something new to talk about. Then the excitement that you once felt has now became true love. If you pass this stage then you come in the realization that nothing can break this bond.
There is love everywhere I hope each one of us understand that. Then maybe one day we’ll find love in every part of our life, even in early morning sunrise and the scent of our favorite places. You might feel it in the laughter you share with friends and in the warmth of a hug from someone who cares about you. When we hear our favorite song or discover something that inspires you. I hope we fall in love with growth, with change and the beauty of messiness of making mistakes as we became who we are meant to be. The one think I’ve learned is that love is way more than a person holding your heart, love IS everywhere love IS everything.
Ευαγγελία Π.