Most commonly, love refers to a feeling of strong attraction and emotional connection.
It’s a feeling that encompasses a range of strong and positive, emotional and mental states.
Love as a subject of frequent debate, is more associated with a general expression of positive sentiment towards something or an individual.
Meanwhile, in interpersonal relationship with romantic symphonies, love is sometimes contrasted with lusting in combination of familiarity and friendship.
Abstractly, love may refer to a feeling one person experiences for another person, involving care, a sense of belonging and identity.
We all talk about love a lot, but we never ensure the actuality in the definition and application of love.
Love is an incredible subjective emotion. Often passionately, yet very selfishly expressed. But in the end, love is love.
Psychosexual relationship therapist and psychotherapist, Sarah Calvert explained that, “Loving someone is about accepting them for who they are”.
However, as a result of the subjectivity and complexity, everyone’s different experiences of love shapes what love means to them.
Sarah further explains that “Being in love is associated with intense feelings of passion, infatuation, obsession and lust.” Many might object to certain aspects of her explanation, regardless, love brings about desperation and energy.
Furthermore, historical, cultural and evolutionary testimony indicates that love existed during ancient times and across the universe.
What is love in Religious texts ?
In Christianity love comes from God as God is love according to the Bible in 1 John chapter 4 vs 8.
In the New Testament section of the Bible, love was categorized as agape containing the virtues; charitable, selfless, altruistic, and unconditional.
Christianity portrays loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself as the most important directives from Jesus.
Subsequently, one must be able to decipher the difference between love and lust as explained by Saint Augustine.
St. Augustine depicts the commandment of love as the “heart of Christian faith and the interpretation of the Bible”.
Renowned Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas defined love as “to will the good of another,” or to desire for another to succeed.
According to him, Christian love is motivated by the need to see others succeed in life, to be good people.
My mom also explains that the absence of love is the reason behind crimes and social vices.
She described love as the force behind the greater good, referencing a verse contained in the Bible;
“You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The Book of Matthew chapter 5 verse 43-48 quotes.
In Islam, love encompasses universal brotherhood that applies to those with faith.
God is also referenced at the beginning of every chapter in the Islamic Qur’an as Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim, or the “Most Compassionate” and the “Most Merciful”, suggesting that nobody is as loving, compassionate, and benevolent as God.
Additional investigations indicates that love includes various tasks to show the value of the love perceived.
Evidently, people ‘in love’ have a lower appetite and experience insomnia and restlessness of some sort.
What I think
In my view, love means that you are connected with someone on all levels: physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally.
Love unrequited, is rather impressionable as it cannot be forced or manipulated.