LOVE is a funny concept in this day and age.
The Greeks believed in several kinds of "love" and had a word for each. EROS was the Greek word for erotic love, which should be pretty obvious in meaning...it's the physical, sexual love between a man and a woman (or in some cases...well...let's skip that sh!t). PHILIOS is the love between friends, where you enjoy things together, support each other, have meaningful conversation, enjoy spending time together, doing things together, etc. STORGE is familial love, the kind of love that families have where they pull together and support each other, give of themselves to support each other in their endeavors, enjoy being together even when they don't get along, and kind of have a life together in addition to their own apart. And AGAPE is what people like to call "God's love". It's sefless, altruistic, unconditional, and often involves sacrifice.
Strangely enough, what we call "LOVE" in today's society really doesn't fit into ANY of those categories.The kind of love where two people NEED to be together, where they require each other's presence to feel validated. Where they become each other's standard for everything and everything is evaluated next to them. The kind of daydream-love that kids feel when they sit at their desk and sigh because the girl in front of them doesn't know they exist. The kind of love in the movies where they break up and come crawling back to each other in the rain crying, "I can't LIVE without you!!"
Why? Because what people think of as "LOVE" isn't really love at all. It's a kind of sick desperation. An addiction caused by a deficiency of spirit and lack of self-affirmation. LOVE, as society thinks of it, is for the weak. If you want to enjoy REAL love, you have to get over "LOVE" as it's sold to you from the media and the people around you.
Love isn't about bullsh!t games. It's not about needs. It's not about affirmation or symbiosis. And for God's sake, it's not about COMPROMISE.
That's always one of my pet peeves...people talk about COMPROMISE in love. Love, REAL love isn't about compromise. It's about SACRIFICE. It's not about equity and fairness, it's about giving up one desire to achieve another desire: enjoying the happiness of the people around you. This is something that people do EVERY DAY with EVERY DECISION. If you are "compromising" in a relationship, giving up things that you would rather have just for the sake of making the relationship work and making someone like you, and REGRETTING those sacrifices, then that is NOT LOVE.
People are so desperate to find the great mystical magic that is "LOVE" that they miss all the love that's right under their noses...the magic that exists inside THEM. The day-to-day experiences that they could be enjoying or the time they could be investing in people to create and enjoy the kind of love they look for. All because they're so busy trying to find someone who will HAND love to them on a silver platter. So many people who just don't get it, trying to FIND love. "OMG I FOUND love." Found it, like it was lying around waiting to be found or someone who was walking around with love looking for someone to hand it off to. FINDING love is a crock of sh!t. Love isn't found. It's made.
These are the same people who save up all their money hoping to be rich, not having a clue that you have to SPEND money to MAKE money...and not even spending enough to enjoy the benefits of HAVING money.
So stop talking about LOVE like it's some holy grail and you're some kind of crusader. Get over yourself, wake up, and realize that real love IS "magical", but the magic is something YOU have to CREATE, not FIND, and it's something that's so subtle that if you look for it, you won't see it.
As the woman said,
Originally posted by Wyldfire
Now, the key to life is SELF love, not love for others. Having a love like I have described certainly is a wonderful enhancement, though. Too many people seek out fulfillment from others in this life. That is a mistake. Instead, you need to build your life as you want it to be and view any partner as a complement to an already complete person rather than looking to someone else to "complete" you.