What is love?To what depth can u describe it? Is there anything to measure love?Which is the purest love? Is there...
80What is this thing called love?
That is the classic line we used to play around with:
What? Is this thing called love?
What is this thing called love?
What is this thing called love?
What is this thing called, love?
Love comes from within you and if you are prepared to give love and risk giving love then you will find that it comes back again to you better and stronger. I often think of the words from The Rose:
The heart afraid of breaking that never learns to give
The soul afraid of dying that never learns to live
Love is an incredibly strong thing but also extremely fragile - it can happen spontaneously and it can be destroyed through lack of nurturing.
The most obvious and greatest love on display is that of a dog for its owner. Everytime you come home your dog is so pleased to see you and is not afraid of showing it with a wagging tail, happy face and, in the case of my dog, the bringing of a stick, bone or toy! The immediacy of emotion from a pet is quite amazing - the glow in the eyes when you praise them, the absolute horror when they believe you are angry with them.. That is love and that is why we love our pets, they give so much.
Between humans I find it amazing how people will hurt the people they are supposed to love. Parents who put totally unreasonable pressure on their children by threatening to withdraw their love if the child does not do what they want, or even worse they suggest that the child does not love them as a form of emotional blackmail. Couples who put tests onto each other to prove their love - but often forget to tell the other person what the test is, that it is happening and why they have 'failed' or 'passed'.
I am incredibly lucky - I have had love in my life always. My parents loved me and were not afraid to show it. I have to confess that my mother did use the old emotional blackmail from time to time:
"oh, wont you eat that food when I have worked so hard to prepare it for you, don't you love me?"
"I am refusing you permission to do x because I love you" (it took me a long time to work that one out)
I have had my heart broken a few times but amazingly it mends again and I have never punished a new love for the sins of the old one. This happened to me once: "oh, so and so behaved like this so I am going to give you a hard time in case you do the same..." go figure! But I will always be ready to give again because the next time could be the best yet and I was right..
I am now in a happy, long and stable relationship and never a day goes by when I don't say "I love you" at some point during the day. It is not required, it is not asked for - I just want to say it. I guess we are as near to unconditional love as possible and we have agreed that if one of us wants to leave the other one would like to come too!
I am surrounded by the unconditional love of assorted pets and because we are comfortable within ourselves we have friends who like being around us because it makes them comfortable also.
I don't believe you can measure it or put a value on it. If you are a giving person and if you take the trouble to get to know and understand the person you love then you will have something that is priceless and special.
I just love being me at the moment. Is that terribly arrogant and smug? Probably but then I have spent a lot of years getting to this point so I figure I am the lucky one....
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Comments
Great words and powerful. So many people have written about love that has stood the test of time which must tell us something...
There is line from Phantom of the Opera that I think describes a great relationship:
Hard as diamonds, soft as candlelight.
I think love can be defined by many thing but the most important one is that is special thing to everyone. Like we need to breath we also need to be loved.
Scientist will not understand but people without love get sick moresee more about it at
I love the reference to the relationship of the dog... lol.. really though i see that as love untainted in it's purest form... great job of challenging the thoughts and bringing up a question as old as time... i was also wondering if you could comment on my little article about love... i would really aprreciate it.. =)
"The heart afraid of breaking that never learns to give.. The soul afraid of dying that never learns to live" I like this quote. Absolutely true. Great hub.
Love can never be measured by units, but by the actions of one person towards his/her partner. tho some people do tend to avoid the pain of heartache by not loving.
http://www.siakoi.com/topic-specific/do-you-believ
You are right snarimkiv and I find that very sad, I would rather a thousand heartaches than never experience love...
Very powerful hub. Thank you for sharing it. There are many forms of love. For me the most transforming of all is the Love that shines within. What do you think? Please see how I try to help others in new ways too. Sincerely: Gary Eby author and therapist.
I agree but it takes a degree of maturity to understand that and be comfortable enough within your own skin to let it come out. I was lucky enough to have parents who encouraged me as a person but I think a lot of younger people today get caught up in me as an image that they can rarely live up to. This creates the whole downward spiral of self-loathing and then unwillingness to believe that you have anything to give.....
this is (i love you ) bye the worlds language
English - I love you Afrikaans - Ek het jou lief Albanian - Te dua Arabic - Ana behibak (to male) Arabic - Ana behibek (to female) Armenian - Yes kez sirumen Bambara - M'bi fe Bengali - Ami tomake bhalobashi (pronounced: Amee toe-ma-kee bhalo-bashee) Belarusian - Ya tabe kahayu Bisaya - Nahigugma ako kanimo Bulgarian - Obicham te Cambodian - Soro lahn nhee ah Cantonese Chinese - Ngo oiy ney a Catalan - T'estimo Cherokee - Tsi ge yu i (Thanks Nancy!) Cheyenne - Ne mohotatse Chichewa - Ndimakukonda Corsican - Ti tengu caru (to male) Creol - Mi aime jou Croatian - Volim te Czech - Miluji te Danish - Jeg Elsker Dig Dutch - Ik hou van jou Elvish - Amin mela lle (from The Lord of The Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien) Esperanto - Mi amas vin Estonian - Ma armastan sind Ethiopian - Afgreki' Faroese - Eg elski teg Farsi - Doset daram Filipino - Mahal kita Finnish - Mina rakastan sinua French - Je t'aime, Je t'adore Frisian - Ik h?ld fan dy Gaelic - Ta gra agam ort Georgian - Mikvarhar German - Ich liebe dich Greek - S'agapo Gujarati - Hoo thunay prem karoo choo Hiligaynon - Palangga ko ikaw Hawaiian - Aloha Au Ia`oe Hebrew (Thanks Lilach) Hebrew to male: "ani ohev otcha" (said by male) "Ohevet ot'cha" (said by female) Hebrew to female: "ani ohev otach" (said by male) "ohevet Otach" (said by female) Hiligaynon - Guina higugma ko ikaw Hindi - Hum Tumhe Pyar Karte hae Hmong - Kuv hlub koj Hopi - Nu' umi unangwa'ta Hungarian - Szeretlek(Thanks D?ra!) Icelandic - Eg elska tig Ilonggo - Palangga ko ikaw Indonesian - Saya cinta padamu Inuit - Negligevapse Irish - Taim i' ngra leat Italian - Ti amo Japanese - Aishiteru Kannada - Naanu ninna preetisuttene Kapampangan - Kaluguran daka Kiswahili - Nakupenda Konkani - Tu magel moga cho Korean - Sarang Heyo Latin - Te amo Latvian - Es tevi miilu Lebanese - Bahibak Lithuanian - Tave myliu Luxembourgeois - Ech hun dech g?er Macedonian - Te Sakam Malay - Saya cintakan mu / Aku cinta padamu Malayalam - Njan Ninne Premikunnu Maltese - Inhobbok Mandarin Chinese - Wo ai ni Marathi - Me tula prem karto Mohawk - Kanbhik Moroccan - Ana moajaba bik Nahuatl - Ni mits neki Navaho - Ayor anosh'ni Norwegian - Jeg Elsker Deg Pandacan - Syota na kita!! Pangasinan - Inaru Taka Papiamento - Mi ta stimabo Persian - Doo-set daaram Pig Latin - Iay ovlay ouyay Polish - Kocham Ciebie Portuguese - Eu te amo Romanian - Te iubesc Russian - Ya tebya liubliu Scot Gaelic - Tha gradh agam ort Serbian - Volim te Setswana - Ke a go rata Sign Language - ,,,/ (represents position of fingers when signing'I Love You') Sindhi - Maa tokhe pyar kendo ahyan Sioux - Techihhila Slovak - Lu`bim ta Slovenian - Ljubim te Spanish - Te quiero / Te amo Swahili - Ninapenda wewe Swedish - Jag alskar dig Swiss-German - Ich lieb Di Surinam - Mi lobi joe Tagalog - Mahal kita Taiwanese - Wa ga ei li Tahitian - Ua Here Vau Ia Oe Tamil - Nan unnai kathalikaraen Telugu - Nenu ninnu premistunnanu Thai - Chan rak khun (to male) Thai - Phom rak khun (to female) Turkish - Seni Seviyorum Ukrainian - Ya tebe kahayu Urdu - mai aap say pyaar karta hoo Vietnamese - Anh ye^u em (to female) Vietnamese - Em ye^u anh (to male) Welsh - 'Rwy'n dy garu di Yiddish - Ikh hob dikh Yoruba - Mo ni fe
Great Hub. I think that this is the greatest question ever asked which man has struggled to define and explain with precision yet its meaning keep expanding daily. I am doing a work on What is love yet I can't find a comprehensive definition to it. It is wholesome, absolute, infinite and overwhelming. Everything shows it.

















bohica says:
2 years ago
A powerful question. One that has asked since Adam and Eve. And being a male, and somewhat stupid, it takes a woman to teach to us.
Can any answer be better than this -
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints!---I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!---and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
For visual of this question answered, watch "Shadowlands".