What is the true meaning of love?

By M H Ahssan

It’s a word we all use not knowing the true meaning behind it. It’s a word with only four alphabets, however, it’s possible to convey it in loads of terminologies and through various dealings. The word is difficult to define because the vibes this word generates can be shared among several people such as friends, families, colleagues or group members.

Furthermore, this feeling is not only used among living beings, yet it can be used to describe how you feel about your job, law, organization, nature, food, money, learning, power, fame, respect of others, etc. These vibes can either last forever or they can simply fail and fade away. You are probably thinking what this word could be. This magical word described is called “LOVE”.

Sometimes I wonder dose the definition of love today match the one in the olden days. Is today’s love focusing more on the physical aspect of life, emotional or is it a balance of both. Also, can a person love more than one person or thing at a time or is love reserved for one source only. No matter what the answers to these questions maybe, love will always focus on passion, intimacy, and commitment. It is also a strong positive emotion of both affection and pleasure.

The definition of love is very much debatable. It is difficult to find a universal definition for love, because every individual expresses their feelings in a different way. Also, the cultural differences make it difficult to establish a unified meaning. Hence, love is essentially an abstract concept that is easier to experience than to explain. In order for you to portray love, simply think of that person or thing and note down your emotions on a piece of paper, just speak your mind and you will find yourself writing not just pages, you may end up writing a book.

To prove myself right, I took the effort of conducting a mini survey with my friends just asking them “what’s love?” Surprisingly no one had the same definition. Here are some of the answers given to me: love is when you are yourself around that person, love is when you accept that person knowing their flaws, love is when you wake up each morning looking forward to spend time with that person even if you were doing nothing, love is when you feel lonely and dial that person’s number, love is about understanding, sharing, communicating, connecting and defending one another, love is simply sacrificing, love can last forever or it can fade away. There is more to love than appearance, when a person’s in love nothing else matters, love is in all languages, to love is to give, forgive and forget. My friends got carried away with this question, there was more said but I decided to stop here. Well, some consider love as pain and war, others consider it as joy and happiness.

All I can say is avoid the love that makes you loose interest in the real world, where food tastes bland and you start struggling to concentrate. These behaviours can lead to serious disturbances at work and at home.