Love is...

Love as a word means nothing––but as a feeling, love means everything. As both a word and feeling, “Love” means something different for everyone. A wise person might say something like “Regardless, love is in everything and when you love something, you are simply seeing it for what it is and appreciating it for all that it is…” 

Very true. I can say I “love” a lot of things. I love my family, my friends, my dog, my life. I love myself. I love the way the sky turns a thousand different shades of gold when the sun rises and sets. I love the way the stars litter the sky like a million scattered diamonds. I love laughing until my stomach hurts, I love perfectly timed moments, the ocean, and well-made cappuccinos. I love impossible cheeseburgers and chocolate cake. I love the shock on people’s faces when they experience unexpected kindness. I love bright eyes and genuine smiles. I love popsicles on hot summer days and good hugs and writing poetry. I love all these things differently…but I love I love…I love...I love…them all. There are a million ways to use the word love and mean it.

Questions arise. In these times, has it lost its meaning? Does it even have a meaning? When we claim it as a feeling for someone else… is “I love you” enough for them to understand? Since it’s so overused and so versatile, so subjective to its subject, what does it mean from the lips of one to the ears of another? 

Personally, I don’t think the words “I love you” quite cover it anymore––there’s simply too many ways to define it. Some say, “I love you all the ways you can love” and maybe that covers it. Some say, “I truly love you,” because “true love” adds the weight of all things. True love is “I love you no matter what––good, bad, better, or worse.” It’s the most sought out forms of love.

We add adjectives to the statement at an attempt to convey what we feel. “I infinitely love you.” “I profoundly love you” “I passionately love you.” We try using time, “I love you all the days of my life.” “I love you this life and the next.”

Then if we can’t measure our feeling with these words, we describe it using size.

Some say, “I love you to the moon and back” because the immensity of that distance somewhat provides justice to the feeling. It’s easy to wrap the mind around the simple fact that outer space is far away…therefore, it must be an inexpressible amount of love. 

We could put that distance into numbers and say “I love you 400,0000 miles into the cosmos” and the gravity of that statement would equate to the gravity of the feeling.

“I love you around the world and back again.” “I love you the entire universe.” “I love you, times infinity.” But, no matter how large our comparisons or how grandiose our choice of words…

To hear and say “I love you” is always going to mean something differently than intended by its speaker, because there is no mutual definition.

The real “definition” of love is too big. Too complex. Intricate. Ineffable. Love is all the words in the dictionary, every measurement of time, it spans the entire distance of the infinitely expanding universe…

Love is “I can’t even find the words…”

It defies all logic. Encompasses all things.

After all the time I’ve spend trying to define it… I can confidently answer…

Love is an unavoidable condition. All forms of it are a miracle to understand and experience, from platonic to romantic to familial to inanimate. It cannot be definitively defined. Only felt.

The word is whatever you want it to be.
The feeling itself is…indescribable.
Love just is.

disclaimer: this short piece explores ONLY the literal definition of love as “words” and the meaning they hold. Beyond just “defining” it using verbiage, there is love as action. (Aka, showing love, acceptance, helping others, ect.)