Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

– William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

What is Love? feeling? emotion? reaction? Turns out, it’s something more than what that one word can signify.

It’s not something that you can distinguish from the other feelings you get in your daily life, yet, once it sets in, it will make you each day a blissful paradise. But, it’s not a feeling for sure, since feelings change over time, but once you start truly loving someone, that never changes.

Love is not a temporary feeling or emotion. Emotion and feeling change, sometimes daily. But true unconditional love is everlasting.

– Sandeep Maheshwari

If you want to see the person all the time, talk to him/her, be with him/her, no, that doesn’t qualify it as love. That is crush or sometimes admiration, not love. Just because you feel you have an intense connection with someone, neither does that qualify as “love”. A lot of people have the misconception that “relationships” are “love”, whereas, they are very much different. It is possible that you are in a relationship with someone whom you don’t love, also, the vice versa is also true. Just because you feel sparks in you when you see that person, doesn’t qualify it as love either.

Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you can feel it.

– Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

So then, what is love?
Love is the purest form of understanding. It basically tells each other that “Hey! Don’t you worry, whatever happens, I am with you!”. It is the completion of yourself with that person. It is the sense of calm you get around that person because you know, no matter what happens, you two always got each other’s backs! It is the slow dissolving of one’s habits into another’s! It is the union of two life rhythms, giving rise to one unified beat. It is that person to whom you can freely say any feeling you have, any secret you have, any desire you have, knowing that the person will never betray you. It is the respect you have for each other. It is the extra sweetness that is added to your happiness every time you succeed in something. It is the very little thing you do to bring a smile on the beloved’s one’s lips. It’s about going that extra mile, knowing that it will most definitely hurt! But to see the other half happy, you can do anything to bear that pain.

You don’t love someone because they’re perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they’re not.

– Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper

You don’t need to be perfect in love, all you need to be is real! The notion of “Perfect Love” is a totally idealized concept, it doesn’t exist in real life! There will always be something off about you two, and love is all about embracing these little imperfections just the same you as you take in the person. Love is about showing that effort, however little it may be. From sharing the load of work to bring food for the other person as well as doing the dishes together, every little thing matters in love!

The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.

– Marilyn Monroe

Love is not about lip kisses or cuddles always. It’s about that one smooth warm touch of the lips on your forehead. It’s about that one affectionate touch of the hand on your hand while you two are sitting under the blank of a million stars, with nothing but silence around you. It’s about that soothing heat you get close to that person under shade on a rainy evening. It’s about that warming ardor of touch under the blanket on a cold winter morning, with snow and freezing winds outside the window. It’s about counting each and every second that passes while waiting for the advent of that person. It’s about saying a million words, and not even unfolding your lips! It’s about one person taking the steering wheel when the other person rests. It’s about finding that one synced groove, where you two are not two different persons, but one and only one!

Don’t fall in love just because you have to fall in love, don’t fall in love just by the ideals of love. If you have to love, fall in love for the sake of love, for that person, for who he or she is, for how great he or she makes you. To love is to accept, to accept the person, to accept the identity, to accept the soul, to accept the imperfections, to just break open from the idealized world and accept that none of the things you saw in the movies will happen and yet… and yet loving that very same one person, day after day, month after month, year after year. Although you know that you two are not perfect, as long as there is an effort from both sides, know you are in love. It need not be perfect or ideal, all it needs to be is real and pure; for the purest of loves, will never ever leave you. There will be times of despair, but love is about not giving up, believing that together you two will get through. Love is about being that silver layer on the cloud, that one little light at the end of the tunnel.

So it’s not gonna be easy. It’s going to be really hard; we’re gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You and me… everyday.

– Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

Love is about keeping the promises, even the ones which were never said by mouth. Love is about being there, for that person, even when the world seems to end. Love is about caring for that person, even when he or she is suffering from any terminal disease. Love is about walking the path together, knowing that there will be gigantic mountains to scale, profound depths to overcome, perilous seas to sail. To love is to dive deep, to love is to fly high, to love is to live like you have never lived before! Love is all about love and to love, is the happiest thing any human can ever do.