Is Love real? If so, what is it, really?

I'm wondering...is Love real?

Or is Love just something that was made by philosophers and poets and songwriters (and others of the like) over the centuries to explain what cannot be understood in other ways. Is love just a "myth" that grew? Is what is called "love" just a chemical interaction of the mind, one no different than the "chemical imbalances" that all those pharmaceutical companies push drugs to control?

If Love really does exist, what is it?

I apologize...I am not trying to incite...

I am just wondering...

Hmm – LoVe?

To ME ~ ~ ~ ~ LoVe is the one thing worth fighting for in this some times corrupt, evil, and self centered world – and while it may bring you great amounts of sorrow and sadness (at times), it is far more capable of the most wondrous secrets in life if you will but only open your HEART…. letting all fears, insecurities and doubts go in sake of finding Neverland.

LoVe understands through enormous levels of unconditional LOVE & RESPECT.

LoVe is to Cherish

THE MEANING OF:

To hold dear - feel and show affection for someone...
To greatly value another. To keep cultivated with care and affection. Implies a special love and feelings for something considered precious. To enjoy and admire. Nourish and grasp the nature, worth, quality and significance of. To harbor thoughts of deeply within in the mind and heart.

... always safeguarding that which is treasured & precious to ones self (as though life depends on it).

This is a good question. I believe that love is real and I believe there are different kinds of love. I can say with no uncertainty that I love my parents and they love me. I have friends who love me and I love them as well. What does love for them mean to me? It means that I care deeply about what happens to them. If they are sad, I feel sad for them. When they're in pain, I hurt too. If they needed a kidney, I would give it to them. If they were gone from my life I would grieve deeply.

Then there's romantic love. For me, I know that I'm "in love" when I feel excited at the thought of seeing the other person. When something interesting happens in my life, I think about telling them and their reaction to it. When I think about them not being in my life anymore, I feel scared and sad. Being close to them just feels "right." It's more than chemistry. It's an intangible connection.

This is what love feels like to me... in the words of Walt Whitman:

O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you;
As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you,
Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.

I have been in love twice in my life... and just because it ended, it doesn't mean it wasn't real. If a tree dies, does that mean it never existed? I don't believe that love must last forever in order to be real.

One of the men I was in love with is now my best friend. I still love him, but not in the same way. I don't love him less; I just love him differently. I believe that I will love him forever and I believe he will love me forever. I know that I could trust him with my life.

I believe that romantic love -- when it doesn't go away and when it doesn't change to platonic love -- can grow into something even stronger, and that's the kind of love I haven't had in my life yet. My parents have been married for 43 years and they are still in love. I think that kind of love is rare and elusive, but that doesn't stop me from striving for a love like that.

True love is how you survived the bad times...not just the good...

That's so true, Inny.

I believe that love is a positive force for good in the universe.

But be careful not to confuse lust with love.

I have come to believe that what is called "in love:" the ecstatic "high" from the anticipation of being with someone new and exciting, the sexual chemistry, and the verbal proclamations of love, has to do with animal chemistry and the species' drive to procreate! I know this sounds cynical.
True romantic love can and does survive beyond this initial "high," I suppose. I've just never been fortunate enough to experience it! Something wrong with me, I guess!
Patty

speaking for myself, i don't think i have seen love in so long that it is hard for me to believe it being real or that i have ever really seen love before.

there is a song by Richard Marx with a line that goes:
"Love is a stranger avoiding me;
'Beware of Danger' is the only sign I see."

i suppose, however, just because I haven't seen it, doesn't mean it isn't real.

what does it look like?

maybe i have seen it, but didn't recognize it.