Typically when I’m at a loss with a prompt I start with the dictionary. I know what the word means, but seeing how Mr. Webster defines it might spark something in my mind. As you can see below, there are 28 ways to define love:
1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.
- a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend.
- sexual passion or desire.
- a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart.
- (used in direct address as a term of endearment, affection, or the like): Would you like to see a movie, love?
- a love affair; an intensely amorous incident; amour.
- sexual intercourse; copulation.
- (initial capital letter) a personification of sexual affection, as Eros or Cupid.
- affectionate concern for the well-being of others: the love of one’s neighbor.
- strong predilection, enthusiasm, or liking for anything: her love of books.
- the object or thing so liked: The theater was her great love.
- the benevolent affection of God for His creatures, or the reverent affection due from them to God.
- Chiefly Tennis. a score of zero; nothing.
- a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter L.
—verb (used with object), loved, lov·ing.
- to have love or affection for: All her pupils love her.
- to have a profoundly tender, passionate affection for (another person).
- to have a strong liking for; take great pleasure in: to love music.
- to need or require; benefit greatly from: Plants love sunlight.
- to embrace and kiss (someone), as a lover.
- to have sexual intercourse with.
—verb (used without object), loved, lov·ing.
- to have love or affection for another person; be in love.
—Verb phrases
- love up, to hug and cuddle: She loves him up every chance she gets.
—Idioms
- for love,
- out of affection or liking; for pleasure.
- without compensation; gratuitously: He took care of the poor for love.
- for the love of, in consideration of; for the sake of: For the love of mercy, stop that noise.
- in love, infused with or feeling deep affection or passion: a youth always in love.
- in love with, feeling deep affection or passion for (a person, idea, occupation, etc.); enamored of: in love with the girl next door; in love with one’s work.
- make love,
- to embrace and kiss as lovers.
- to engage in sexual activity.
- no love lost, dislike; animosity: There was no love lost between the two brothers.
Origin: before 900; (noun) Middle English; Old English lufu, cognate with Old Frisian luve, Old High German luba,Gothic lubō; (v.) Middle English lov(i)en,Old English lufian; cognate with Old Frisian luvia, Old High German lubōn to love, Latin lubēre (later libēre) to be pleasing; akin to lief
If the definition doesn’t work to spark and idea for a post, I just start writing. I’m thinking unfiltered, with the plan of revising and editing most of it before I publish. That may be where the more bizarre stream of consciousness posts I’ve written on occasion originated.
So: I love my children. I love writing. I love music. I love theater. I love art. I love my dogs. I have had romantic love.
What exactly does it mean?
What exactly is it that I feel? I close my eyes think about this I love, and the people I have loved, and the things I love to do. It is a feeling very close to pain, anguish, an open abdominal wound. The first definition is the closest for me. As painful as it is, it’s everything.
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Daily Post
March 14, 2015
Daily Prompt
I Want to Know What Love Is
We each have many types of love relationships — parents, children, spouses, friends. And they’re not always with people; you may love an animal, or a place. Is there a single idea or definition that runs through all the varieties of “love”?
<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/i-want-to-know-what-love-is/”>I Want to Know What Love Is</a><a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/i-want-to-know-what-love-is/”>I Want to Know What Love Is</a>
Definitions notwithstanding, I think we know what we love. We even (usually) know why, if we are willing to admit it to ourselves.