What Is Love? The Annual Valentine’s Day Post

I was going to give you some nice quotes about love  — and I still will — but then I thought I might write something a little more personal  . . .

I have been in love two — maybe three — times in my life. So, love, to me, isn’t that frequent an occurrence. And we probably all have our own definitions of what romantic love is. To me, it is when a piece of your heart still belongs to that person no matter how many years have passed. Obviously, other things are involved, but  that is how I can tell the “love” relationships from the others. There is no better feeling  than being in love — and sometimes no feeling that is worse.

But I have some questions:

There is a difference between “loving” and “being in love.” What is that difference?

What is chemistry? Is it merely physical attraction or is it something more? Can you have chemistry without physical attraction?

Why is it that we so often “love” those who don’t return our feelings? And we don’t return the feelings to those who “love” us? And can it be love at all if it is one-way only?

Is love the same at 60 as it was at 20? 30? 

Can you love two people at one time?

Is there such a thing as a soulmate? And do we each have just one soulmate somewhere in the world?

Are there really lots of people we can be in love with? Only a few? Or does it vary depending on who we are? And if it depends on who we are, what is it about us that makes that true?

Is there anything to the “law of attraction”?

For a long-term relationship is “being in love” necessary — or may it even be detrimental?

Is the state of “being in love” temporary? Does it sometimes turn into love and sometimes not?

Can you be married and “fall in love” with someone else, and if you do, what do you do?

What is the difference between being “in love” and being “in lust”?

Well, enough of my questions. If you have any “answers” or opinions about any of my questions, please do comment!

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I have a book called Be Gentle with Me for I Love You As I Love the Sun. I have had this book since high school or college, and I have kept it, ragged as the cover is now (it is a small hardcover book). I just love the quotes in it. Here are some of my favorites. (Punctuation is not mine,, but is taken directly from the quotes.)

The supreme happiness of  life is the conviction that we are loved — loved for ourselves; say, rather loved in spite of ourselves. – Victor Hugo

I find as I grow older that I love those most whom I loved first.  – Thomas Jefferson

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. – Martin Luther King

Think not that you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds  you worthy, directs your course – Kahlil Gibran

He is not a lover who does not love forever. – Euripides

Love at best, is giving what you need to get. – Rod McKuen

We are all born for love; it is the principle of existence and its only end.  Benjamin Disraeli

We seldom think how much we owe our first love. – Goethe

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost. – G.K. Chesterton

To love is to become not as a single tree with one root, but as two intertwining vines. – Jay Foster

The love that lasts the longest is the love that is never returned. – Somerset Maugham

You don’t love a woman for what she says, but love what she says because you love her. – Andre Maurois

I have loved many but I’m not sure if I have ever been loved. – Marilyn Monroe

Familiar acts are beautiful through love. – Percy Bysshe Shelley

I’ve fallen in love with you. I’m taking it badly. – Noel Coward

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. – Solomon 8.7

Love hasn’t any windows to see through, but so many doors to walk out of. – Rod McKuen

All you need is love . . . -Lennon/McCartney

News:

There will be a Goodreads giveaway of my book Trashy Novel from February 15 to February 22, so sign up on Goodreads to enter! You cannot enter until February 15. This is a giveaway of the print book.

Save the Date: I will be speaking and reading from Fifty Shades of Grammar at its official launch at Petaluma Copperfields Books on Friday evening, February 26, at 7 p.m. Please join me for word fun, cake, and prizes.

Happy Valentine’s Day from The Grammar Diva!