Ways to Say LOVE.

My niece was 2 and didn't really understand the concept. Her favorite movie was toy story so she told every person that she loved that they were her faaaaavorite deputy. Now it is the families way of saying I love you.

Ephie you gave my brain a knot.
Not because of the subject, but because my Husband is being a turd.

Anyway, per people, love is not conditional or situational. It is deep caring. Deep acceptance warts and all, of the person. It makes you and the other person, feel good. Not bad. And that you know you can count on it and the person.

Takes me back to my late Dad. He would just sit in his chair. And you could just feel his love for his children/family etc. even if he was not saying anything. Even if he was perhaps angry for some reason. Even if you were not like him and he disagreed with you. Even if, you were in a bad mood. Even if, you had not a thought in your mind.
To me, that was love.

Anyway, I could ramble on and on.
But can't.

Love as a word, is a word. And sometimes, it doesn't even need a word.
It just is.

Love is a decision.:)

Since love is more of an "emotion" than a noun it has to be learned to be "felt".

agape love http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agape Like the way Christ loves us.

I cook and keep the house clean for my family. It tells them I not only care about them but what surrounds them too.

i agree that love is a verb and something we do, but I also think its an emotion we feel as well. For people- That all encompassing bring you your knees, make you smile with every inch of your face until you're brought to tears, kind of emotion. I think its amazing and I feel that way about chocolate too...i don't need another word for it=) J. kidding my love for chocolate is way beyond my love for people=)

How about "unconditional acceptance"?

Well, I know the greek language has many specific words for our one word love. Which is why I find so much of the Bible intrepretable, rather than literal.

I think love is a verb. Of course it can be either a being verb or an action verb.

I think we need to DO love, as well as FEEL love, in order for said loved one to feel our love.

I think there are as many ways to define love as there are relationships in the world.

Furthermore, I think you need to SHARE with the rest of us whatever it is you're smoking while writing these deep posts! Perhaps then we'd ALL be in a more reflective mood!

:)

***Here is what many couples have read at their weddings. Including me, sigh. I guess we didn't hear it. :(
http://christianity.about.com/od/prayersverses/qt/Love-Is...

Nice post. You mentioned other languages, so I thought I'd give you my experience. In Italian we have two ways to say "I love you", one is for parents, siblings, friends etc ("ti voglio bene")..., one is specifically for lovers ("ti amo"). We also have "ti adoro" which has yet another meaning connected to hopelessly adoring someone. Since love has many hues (all of them equally important) I'd describe it as "The Whole", which is the most inclusive word that comes to my mind when I think of all the emotions connected to loving someone/something. I too believe love is divine.

You know...I've put on a lot of weight since I married my husband. Partly due to having my 3 kids less than 2 years apart each, partly due to a lot of stress and a bad first couple of years with my husband, and mostly due to bad choices on my part. Last night I was telling him at the dentist they took my blood pressure, because they said enough people don't go to the doctor for an annual physical. Well, I do. I actually went last week...just for a normal check up, my girl doctor annual is in May. The regular doctor took everything they needed from me and said aside from my weight all is great! Thank God. The dentist got high clood pressure numbers three times in a row.

Well, my husband works in the medical field with IT and said he could check in the system what my BP was. I told him that was great, and then realized he has no idea what the actualy number of my weight is. It is beyond embarassing. He looked at me, gave me a huge hug, and told me if he seriously thought he wouldn't love me because of my weight, I really didn't know how much he loved me. Brought tears to my eyes. I have an amazing man (who periodically drives me crazy), but loves me regardless.

I'm back on WW and on track to also have weight loss surgery. But he loves me no matter what, and that's what matters, right?

Ik hou van jou. Dutch Ich Liebe Dich. German
No one can explain love. It is a feeling. And, you cannot help loving someone.
Unconditional love is rare.

Other than love for our children, and maybe our parents if we had good ones, I often think love is a societal construct. The idea of romantic love for a member of the opposite sex (or same sex, depending) is a relatively new one in human history, probably beginning around Chaucer's time in the Middle Ages.

We actually have a lot of words for love, some of them we use less often. They are:

affection, fondness, tenderness, warmth, intimacy, attachment, endearment; devotion, adoration, doting, idolization, worship; passion, ardor, desire, lust, yearning, infatuation, besottedness

And I like the words from the Christian Bible for the more elevated and defined types of love:

agape (selfless love)Phillia (brotherly love) eros (sexual love) storage (needy child to parent love). These give you something to think about I think anyway. As do compassion,and mercy.

And sometimes when I am feeling especially spiritual I find it is enough to say that I simply love. Not anything but all. I simply love the tree, the land, the sky, the world and all that is living. I love all, all that is, all that was, all that will be. I love.