Love is something that’s rather interesting. So many aspects and involving so many things, but yet no one can truly say that they completely understand what love is.

The dictionary would refer to it as ‘an intense feeling of like towards someone or something’, if I didn’t recall inaccurately.

I guess it is an apt description, as how could there be love without you liking the person in the first place? But love encompasses so much more, gives so much more, and is so much more.

From the minute we are born, the ability to love is inherently present in us. We are all born with souls, souls that are made up of such complex stuff that it’s impossible to even begin to describe them. Our souls are nurtured by love, and they grow by giving love to others. Without the capacity to love, a human’s existence on this earth would not hold meaning at all, no matter the successes and experiences one manages to go through.

As we grow older, we meet love in so many ways. The very first, most tangible love that we feel is that received from our parents. It is the gospel truth that all parents love their children, and I believe this is so even for broken homes, as it is very hard to hold a child of your own flesh and blood and not have some feelings for it. From our youth, our parents show us affection and do their best to bring us up, and constantly remind us that they love us, as if afraid that we might forget this undeniable fact. A parent’s love can be the greatest love of all, for there is often no limit to the length parents will go for their children, to ensure that their children live as best a life as they can provide.

When we are thrust out into the world from the reluctant arms of the caretakers and guardians that we call Mom and Dad, it is not uncommon for us to fall into what’s commonly referred to as puppy love. The innocence of those doe-eyed puppies, frolicking around and playing with one another, makes them a suitable metaphor to describe the love that is felt at this stage, where uninitiated unknowing youngsters like us shyly approach the apple of our eye and offer a lollipop to them, then take their hand and skip down the hallway only to have our small hearts broken not too long afterwards.

As the pains of puberty strike us and we proceed to be pruned into passably-perfect people to please our parents, (but perhaps purposely preparing procedures to possibly pervade those protective ‘policemen’ and purloin some prospective peace for ourselves), we are toughened and strengthened and have received a certain amount of lessons at the school of hard knocks, enough to let us progress from the kindergarten innocence and awaken to the reality of the world and the things going on in it. We no longer love as we used to do and are instead guarded, keeping things inside and possibly jaded by less-than-fulfilling experiences that we had in the past.

And yet, it is not impossible for us to find love, to find comfort in the arms of another or as in most cases, dream and yearn of doing so. For it is after all human nature to love, and falling in love one day and falling out of love the next is certainly commonplace. What are we without love? Merely hollow shells looking for the next ‘meaningful activity’ to fill us out and then get cracked open to leak happiness all too soon, like a Kinder Surprise egg being mutilated by some excited kid looking for his toy.

So often, we lose love in the arms of one only to find solace in other avenues. Brotherly love and love between friends is all-too-real, and it transcends just the hi-bye acquaintances that we make and meet everyday. Real friendship does involve love for one another, although it is likely to pale in comparison to romantic love, as it does not evoke an equal level of emotions within us to let us appreciate its value and beauty. But it is nevertheless tangibly there, and it is certainly a pity if that spark fizzles out as well. It may be hard to take care of and maintain, but then again nothing worth having ever is.

Simultaneously, love can be so painful. It can be a leaden weight that’s oh-so-heavy on the heart, and pulling it around with you all the time can get so unbearable you’d feel like a prisoner latched to a ball-and-chain. And it doesn’t help when all you see and all you hear and all the decisions you make and all the things that people do only add on to that weight.

It can be a secret – locked up deep inside you with the intention of never letting it out, but you’re never quite able to throw away the key aren’t you? One day someone will rummage around in the gutters of your heart and find it, and unlock that stony-celled four-walled prison to release the last vestiges of your feelings, and possibly bring you back to the bliss of it all. Even if it is not locked up, the knowledge that you possess a love so great has to be kept within sometimes, especially when it is not yet your time, or the consequences of not keeping it in would be immeasurably disastrous to whatever’s already there.

Love can quite literally make you or break you. It puts a skip in our step and a high in our stride to know that we are loved, by whoever loves us, and all the more so if our soul mate loves us back. It can inspire you to go the distance and push yourself to the limits, if only to prove yourself worthy of the one you strive so hard to get noticed by. It can push us past all boundaries and leave us senseless, making the most foolhardy decisions but yet not coming off the worse for them, as our actions are guided with this pure motivation.

It can also throw us into the farthest reaches of the deepest hells to know that our love is unreciprocated or carelessly received, and nothing can be more devastating than broken heart. Why, recent studies have shown that it is quite possible for people to literally die of a broken heart, because if you’ve been so hurt in love you might sink into depression, and you just cease to function. Understandably so, for how often do we feel that life is not worth living without him/her? Quite the cliché, but certainly not one when you’re in the throes of pain.

Love at first sight? Always talked about, rarely experienced. The term ‘lust at first sight’ would be much more appropriate, since we with our fallen nature are base creatures who tend to judge superficially. It’s rampant in the movies: main actress lusts after hot jock, finds out hot jock is a jerk and dumps him/gets dumped, actress realizes how protagonist has always been there for her and been loving her, comes to her senses and reciprocates. In sadder movies, add life-threatening disease to protagonist/main actress or send protagonist on life-threatening quest to vanquish life-threatening antagonist. Sad ending: life-threatening disease cannot be cured, life-threatening antagonist dies together with protagonist. Yeah you know what I mean.

Can love last forever? We gaze at the childhood sweethearts who get hitched and live a long, fulfilling life together and we tell ourselves yes, this is how we want our lives to be. Sure, along the way there might be a substantial amount of hiccoughs, but love always wins the day doesn't it? Or, maybe everlasting love is something superstitious, and horribly overrated.

And sometimes when we get a feeling we can’t even distinguish whether it’s love or something else, perhaps merely infatuation or something along those lines. And love can be so irritating when you see others displaying it for the object of your affection as well, and struggling to find the words to say.

Sometimes you just need to ask yourself: is this truly love?

yes, it is
i don't want to share you with anyone else