What Is It To You?

Let's talk about love. Better yet... lets talk about what we want out of love! Can it be said that everyone wants the same basic principles out of relationships? Or is that just a common misconception?

Let us start first with the definition of love: Love is any of a number of emotions related to a sense of strong affection and attachment {Wikipedia}. This definition in particular leaves us with a massive ability to interpret this into what we want. So what is it that we want to believe true love is? I am looking for a great deal of feedback on this... lets get different opinions floating around. I'll tell you why...

I believed up until maybe a month ago that love was a textbook emotion and could be achieved in such a way. As if I could study enough about someone to know the exact thing to say, at the exact moment it needed to be said for them to respond. For the record, I don't believe that I was tricking or manipulative. I do however realize that I left too little to chance and fate from over analyzing.

So here's what I know to be true... I hope for an honest love. Something that I never stop learning about. Something absolutely terrifying in the beginning and never loses its ability to make me blissfully nervous as time goes on. I hope for kindness, understanding, acceptance, and thoughtfulness to be present in everything we do together. I hope for a mature love with someone who hopes for the same things. I hope for fun and spontaneity. I hope for someone who can find joy out cutting off the TV and cooking together while sharing conversation. I hope for someone who asks me how my day was, because they honestly care to know. I hope for the ability to be myself and for them to do the same. I hope for a "comfortable, broken-in" kind of love. A love that is secure and not jealous or needing constant reassurance. And I hope for a patient love. But most of all, I hope for a love that can look me in the eye, see my sincerity, and know that they can let go with me.

You think that sounds too perfect and that it doesn't exist? I know for a fact that it does.... there was someone in my past that I had met and was getting to know for a while. I could see in their eyes they hoped for the same things and there was a promising aspect about them. I still to this day have no clue what went wrong. Maybe it wasn't the right time, maybe it wasn't the right person. But I know now more than ever what I want and need out of love at this moment in my life. I am not in any hurry to achieve everything I listed above, and I am aware that love isn't on my time or agenda. I know it may not happen the way I planned... and chances are the right one won't. But everyone who knows me knows I love with everything I have. I just hope to find someone willing to do that in return.

So this begs the questions: What is your idea of love? What do you want out of love? Post a reply! Chances are that something that you say could help me or someone else reading this better understand someone with a different view of love in the future. I know I myself could use some help right now with this.