How do you define being in love?

[Drifterwood]

Love and marriage, love and marriage
Go together like a horse and carriage.

Yep. Eventually the horse shits on you.

 

[the_reverend]

love is that strange alchemy between sexual attraction, emotional connection and spiritual fulfillment. it's friendship refracted through a prism of animal chemistry and holy communion. or to borrow from a wiser man than myself...

"When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

"For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he acends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

"Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself. He threshes you to make you naked. He sifts you to free you from your husks. He grinds you to whiteness. He kneads you until you are pliant; and then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

"All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

"But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing floor, into the seasonless world, where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

"Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; for love is sufficient unto love.

"When you love you should not say, 'God is in my heart,' but rather, 'I am in the heart of God.' And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

"Love has not other desire but to fulfil itself. Buf if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: to melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; and to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; to rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstacy; to return home at eventide with gratitude; and then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips."

-Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet"

 

[the_reverend]

oh, and the other two questions..."officially" been in love 7 times (by officially, i mean both that i fully accepted that i was in love and acknowledged it...there've been a few where i thought i was, but wasn't sure. i fall in love rather easily, lol). first time was when i was 13.

 

[deleted3782]

Easy, you will be thinking about and trying to do everything to make your partner(s) happy before doing things for yourself.

When all you can think about is of that person and there is nothing more important in your life than make him/her happy!

Those are both pretty close to my own definition...which would be roughly something like: Love is when you put the best interests of another person ahead of your own.

Of course, that only works if the other person then watches out for you in return...otherwise, nobody is looking out for your best interests! Hence, the importance of trust.

 

[deleted356736]

I'm 25. I don't think I've ever been in love.

There is only one absolute with love: if you think you've been in love, or you don't think you've been in love, then you haven't. Because when you have been in love, then you will know it.

Now my answer: I have been in love twice, and the first time was when I was 26. Unfortunately, the two times I was in love were overlapping, I loved two different women at the same time. I then discovered that love is additive, that you can love someone and love someone else, and the love for one is not reduced by the love for the other.

It's logical, like loving your two children.

 

[PurpleThrillHammer]

I am 37 and I don't think I have never been in love.

Me too bro, 36 yrs :frown1:

Maybe it doesn't exist for everybody........ coming very close to not caring anymore about finding love.

 

[tachyon]

Never stop thinking about this person, you starting to get blush easilt when see her/him. It is a painful thing to have "inlove" when the person you adoring rejects you.

 

[metas]

"I loved two different women at the same time. I then discovered that love is additive, that you can love someone and love someone else, and the love for one is not reduced by the love for the other."

Yes, I'm addicted to love too.

Love is a logical one, so it is undevided no matter how many you have. Too bad, I only have 24 hours a day.

 

[badgirl22]

I'm not sure I could define love but I know when it happens. I can think of nothing else and I get butterflies. Just the mere thought of that person can make me smile all day. But, that power the other person has can also work the opposite too and if they say even one word that is less than positive it can strike like a knife and cut you down with a sick feeling in your gut.

I'm 47 and have been in, what I consider *love* four times - first was when I was just shy of 18 - dated for 3 years. Still friends with him and still love him so much it hurts. 2nd was instant love at age 24 with someone who I still love but we were never more than just friends. He loved me back like a *sister* but even now when on the rare occasion I speak to him it brings tears to my eyes I love him so much. The third was someone I met and again, it was instant but it didn't last long enough to be as lasting as the first two. The fourth is crazy nuts (and he knows who he is) - it's someone I've been talking to for over a year and we have a volitile relationship but I simply adore this man. Have been with him but don't have a real *lover* relationship. I admire this person so much I think I actually want to BE him. I'm actually confused a bit if it's really love but for the past year he hasn't been 5 minutes from my mind and no man measures up to him. Because I haven't spent a long amount of time with him I can't be sure it's really love as opposed to lust but I'm hoping to find out :smile:

 

[deleted509196]

How do you define being in love? Hard to explain really, but you probably do just KNOW. You care about them and you like them but it's much stronger.

How many times in your life have you been in love? Just once PROPERLY, truly in love (I am now and have been for 4 months), but I must have loved one of my exes, on some level, but totally not on the same level as how I am now.

How old where you the first time you fell in love? 22, the age I met my b/f (4 months ago), I'm still 22 (23 in March though). Although the ex I loved on SOME level I was 20 and it was on/off for over a year... but even then it wasn't the kind of love I have for my man now!

 

[Catchoftheday]

I got the idea to ask these questions just now as a follow-up to another thread. My question is : How do you define being in love? How many times in your life have you been in love? How old where you the first time you fell in love?

Only a fool would try to define being in love, love is like water we all need it and when we haven't got it we spend most of our time looking for it, the best way of telling when you are in it is that you start getting all wet.

I've been in love lots of times the first was probably when I was about 10 I think but it was a long time ago

 

[helgaleena]

Love and marriage, love and marriage
Go together like a horse and carriage.

Yep. Eventually the horse shits on you.

Shit is part of life. You need to watch your step! :tongue: I have taken decades to learn that if I am feeling shit on I need to move my position at least. This includes dealing with babies.

 

[Roark1976]

for those that have never been in love, i'm sorry, but that sucks. as much as it hurts when it ends, it's worth it.

 

[drac]

You took the words out of my mouth.

"oh it must have been while you were kissing me"

I don't think it boils down to a definition. It's purely emotional with nothing but the best intentions.

 

[D_Jurgen Klitgaard]

I think that if you're in a relationship and you feel cold and numb like your dead when it become jeopardized, and you do anything and pour your heart out to keep it alive...you're in love.

 

[deleted395785]

by what you guys & gals defining being in love, the steak man has never been in love:frown1:

 

[D_Portelay Porquesword]

I got the idea to ask these questions just now as a follow-up to another thread. My question is : How do you define being in love?

I have come to understand/realize that love is a selfless outpouring of affection/emotion/action that requires no reward, or is expressed without a need for gain.

Love is truly an action word and God is in the details.

As a gay man I have frequently been criticized for sending cards to my str8 friends because it was belief in my family that only girls did that kind of thing. When in fact, love does those kinds of things and is an art form that if it weren't for the greeting card industry would have long dried up on a stick.

Instinctively, I do what feels right to me, regardless of outside opinion. Those instincts have served me well over the years.


How many times in your life have you been in love?How old where you the first time you fell in love?Knowing what I know now. I have ever been in true love.

Love is tricky at best to navigate and is very rare and precious.

 

[LuvMensCocks]

When you know he is going to be home in 15 minutes and you can't sit still. I get up and down watching for him out the window.

When you see his number on the call waiting and you get butterflies in your stomach.

When you completly put his needs and wants above your own.

When you are afraid to loose him (Death) evertime he leaves the house.

When you can sit in a car traveling together and the 20 minutes of silence is not uncomfortable.

When you are in a car and and I don't want to turn on the radio because any conversation with him is better.

When he is away and I suffer from depression when he is gone.

When you work together and you still never seem to fight and yet you never get tired of being with him.

I feel all these things still and we have been together for over 15 years.

I have never been this much in love with someone and I tell him I know I will never have it this good again.

 

[Roark1976]

the butterflies are the key. listen to your gut and not your head; the former is smarter.

 

[Countryguy63]

Hard to totally describe. For me, it is that total connection feeling. That longing throughout the day feeling. It's a feeling in your heart definitely. Been in love a very few amount of times, including right now :biggrin1: