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Thoughts

Love
Written May 2002

Love can be a simple but complex emotion, I believe. First off, many people confuse it with other feelings, so some people's definitions of it can be wrong. Second, it's a very strong emotion, that can't be confused with other ones, when felt.

As for a definition, I would say it's awful hard to give it one, but I'll try. I would say it is a whole lot of caring for someone, beyond what you thought you were capable of before hand. It's also hurting, a lot, when the person you love is hurting or having problems. It's a burning desire to comfort and hold the person you love, when they are hurting or having those problems. It's putting their needs before yours, when he or she really needs you (It would be unhealthy to put his or her needs first all the time though). It's a very strong desire to protect that person, and want him or her to be happy, but at the same time understanding he or she needs his or her own space, and has the right to make his or her own choices, even if unwise ones. It's also being there for him or her if he or she makes some unwise choices, even after you warned them not too. Though love can also be not coming to someone's aide, when he or she needs to learn to stand on his or her own two feet. And it's also doing things that may anger someone, like in a situation where he or she is putting his or her life in danger, and you stop him or her. Love is also feeling lots of pain when you do something you know that will get him or her angry and upset, even though you know it's saving his or her life.

Love is a great emotion, yet one that can bring us a lot of pain. It's being completely open to the needs, feelings, and wants of another person, and that person can greatly hurt you, if he or she wants too. In that regard, love can be a scary thing.

I would say I have, and do love, at least two people. There is nothing romantic about it though, I've never felt the romantic kind of love. Only feelings that I confused as love. So perhaps I am not the best to talk about love? What makes one an expert? I know with the two people, how that emotion feels, how strong it is, and how much it can and does hurt me at times. Maybe that's not enough to make me an expert, but I do know what it feels like.

Love is; compassion, understanding, compromise, honesty, loyalty, patience, kindness, caring, and trust, mixed together and times by 100.