What is Love?
Love is the underlying current of the universe. It is the stillness of early morning. It is the way the light dances on a stream. It is the strength in the branches of a great tree. It is the delicate petal of a flower.
Love is not a feeling. It’s not an emotion. Love isn’t happy or sad, it is a state of being. You can be heartbroken and still be love. You can be grieving and still be love. You can be lost and still be love.
Love is not reserved for romantic relationships. Every interaction with every person, place, and thing, can be done from a place of love. Love is listening. Love is understanding. Love is appreciating, even the things that are difficult to appreciate.
Love between others looks like this: even when you’ve hurt me, I support you and want the best for you. Even when I am struggling with my own feelings of jealousy, confusion, and anger, I support you and want the best for you. Even when you’ve wronged me, I support you and want the best for you. Even if I don’t understand you or don’t agree with you, I support you and want the best for you. Even if I choose to not have you in my life, I support you and want the best for you.
Love is boundless. The more you give, the more you’re filled. When you empty your heart of love, more love fills in. Love knows no end.
Rachel - Portland, OR - Member since 2019 - May Queen 2020
Love is never the way we expect it to be.
My youth taught me love is servitude. My mother was fond of saying “I love you” while she was punishing us, so I connected love as suffering. My father never said it at all. He was too busy trying to hide from mother, so he never had time for us. My brothers and I were prisoners together. No love there.
My whole childhood was loveless. I watched my mother’s self-loathing consume her, my brother’s anger destroy him, and my father’s apathy diminish all hope. I viewed love as a terror, a weakness. A tool to be used against you, because so often it was. My childhood was fraught with horrors that left me afraid to seek comfort from anyone. My mother called this love.
I learned that love is pain. It’s a scraping in your chest, a choak in your throat, and a sting in your eye. It’s raw and unbalanced, yet it is what we all aspire to find. We cling to it like a lifeline and admonish those who lack it. We tend to assume there is only one form of love worth striving for: romantic.
But as I grew, so too did my understanding of love. Eventually, I learned about another kind: the love of friends. A friend was something not allowed in my childhood and so was new territory when I began exploring it. A friend that loves you can be difficult to spot, so look at the deeds. A true friend will be the one who helps you up when you trip. Who makes coffee for you in the morning not because they want something in return but because they want to enjoy it with you. A friend’s love is soft, understanding, and supportive. It is a hug when you need one, a bad joke to break your foul mood, or simply the courage to call you out on your bullshit because you’re being kinda stupid right now. It is flexible because it is honest.
A friend’s love can help you see the value of yourself through their eyes. It is a powerful aid in your journey of self-discovery. Friends help you come to terms with who you are and learn the value of the greatest love of all.
Self-love.
This illusive and rarely found gem is the most honest form. Self-love is open. It is when you see all your flaws and strengths laid out before you and still decide to embrace them. It is understanding and patient without getting in the way of your development. It is kind to your mistakes and supportive of your successes.
So, what is love? True love is one good friend.
Freya - Portland, OR - Member since 2020 - May Queen 2021
The English language limits how we verbalize complex emotions, potentially hindering the emotional depths of our reality. Love in English is a blanket term for a wide range of affections and general affinities, effectively trivializing an emotion that defines human existence and expression.
What is Love?
🎶Baby, don’t hurt me
Don’t hurt me
No more🎶
An all-encompassing definition of Love is when your soul sees value in something, someone, or even a belief enough to form an attachment. However, there is a difference between Love and showing Love. Love is when a piece of your soul is given to this attachment, causing emotional shifts when that something, someone, or belief is disrupted. On the other hand, showing Love is when you are motivated by what you love to have compassion but not necessarily attachment.
Chloe - Scottsdale, AZ - Member since 2019 - May Queen 2023
Many people lean toward “love is patient, love is kind” but that’s only partly true. Love is chaos, love is painful. Love is getting in messy arguments, and disagreeing about the small things that don’t really seem to matter later on. Love is repetitive, falling over and over again and egging yourself to get back up. True love, REAL love, is something regardless of the tolls it takes. It’s continuously feeling that love during those arguments, in the midst of that chaos. It’s knowing that at the end of all that mess, it’s still a part of you and your heart can’t properly beat without it. Happiness, passion, beauty - cracks, scrapes, burns, and all. Love is beautifully chaotic.
Haley - Portland, OR - Member since 2021 - May Queen 2022
love is intelligent. it is a creative energy conducive to harmony. the feeling of love is void of fear and quells any obstacle or authority in its surrounding. it is a bio-physical energy that is quantifiable and unique to the organism. when love meets, it cultivates life. it is curiously gentle and also the most powerful thing ever known. loving yourself is a noble achievement and the most valuable contribution to your community. loving others is the gift of gratitude and a catalyst for limitless growth. it is the purest connection and the only salvation.
Tyson - Portland, OR - Member since 2020
Hmm Love,
Unconditionally love is infinite ♾ its a continuous cycle between two things, people, or sources. Constant not expecting, always giving and returning. No limits are even a thought.
Love between two people or things or sources. Love is when two counterparts of a soul gain a connection, whether that's physically, mentally, or emotionally. Love between two sources is nourishing eachothers love languages, hardships, passions, and eachothers health, etc.
Love in general, is the most powerful energy of this world. It is healing, creation or its knowledge. Its all in how you interpret it.
Mikaela - Portland, OR - Member since 2020
(Love) a deep affections towards God, person of any level of relationship, traveling places, sports teams, passions/desire or possessions “my precious”.
- Life is less then nothing without love for something -
“For where Your Treasure Is There Your Heart Is Also”.
When I think of the word love my first instinctual thought was my dad, who I love so dearly in which I’m so blessed for all the amazing experience in life that he and my mom have given opportunity for and taught me over the years. He told me one day “I want you to know I will always love you, but there’s a way of things my son. I love Jesus first, who blessed me to find your mom; she and I became one, then God blessed us with you my son. My first born.”
As for “me” (learning that) I found to put Jesus first, to be my first love and he’s provided many astounding, memorable and supportive loving moments in my life. The King of Peace gives us divine assurance of his everlasting love in which I’ve witnessed in my own understanding and ways throughout life’s journey. My faith in Jesus is so very real for my life, that’s why I’m so passionate about living out my life to be more like the king of peace and love of a father in Jesus to those I come in contact with to love on; encourage and speak life into them.
Inspired as a young boy by my earthly father has resembled to me growing up to be more and more like them daily.
Richie - Portland, OR - Member since 2021
When I feel into that question, the part of me that somatically feels and experiences this life intrinsically comprehends the experience we’ve labeled as Love, Amor, Liebe, Agapi, Prema…as a knowing, an inherent truth.
But my intellectual mind can’t quite describe the definitive meaning of it.
But for the sake of this blog post, I’m going to try...
I believe with most experiences in this life, the way we define it comes through our lens of perception - Our past experiences, belief systems, programming, etc. And I also believe that in this Universe, there is a Relative and an Absolute. What I mean by this is a relative definition can be something malleable, based on opinion, or given a sense of wiggle room in its definition. There is a Relative Love - I love traveling (some people might fear it, not care for it, etc.. relative) But in an Absolute Love - An “Unconditional Love” IS Absolute. No opinion or dichotomy can change its placement. An unbreakable force that penetrates and stays grounded throughout anything that tries to change, destroy, or disprove it.
This Love, I believe, lies in the very core of who we are. As physical beings, we are changing, growing, and evolving, CONSTANTLY. But I trust there is an energy that remains intact. Call it Prana, Qi, Purusha, Life-force, Soul. it’s all the same to me. The energy that invigorates all which is alive. And that energy is invigorated with Love.
In yogic philosophy, there are many definitions of Love. Bhakti - the path of devotion, places a strong emphasis on love as a central force. Karuna - meaning compassion, involves cultivating a compassionate and empathetic attitude towards oneself and others, recognizing the interconnectedness and inherent worth of all beings. Prema - a Sanskrit word for Love, is often associated with Divine Love or unconditional Love. It refers to a selfless, all-encompassing Love that transcends individual attachments. Metta - originating from Buddhist teachings, is a form of loving-kindness meditation, and Ananda - meaning bliss or joy, is considered an expression of Love in yogic philosophy. It is seen as the inherent nature of the self and the ultimate goal of spiritual practice, representing a state of profound happiness and contentment.
But for the sake of grounding this into MY meaning of Love - which I feel do resonate with all of the above, I’ll share my favorite and most prevalent forms of love in my life. Which flows through my relationships. Love, I’ve realized, is the experience of being truly seen and accepted, without reservation or judgment.
It is the profound sensation of being heard and understood, even in the midst of chaos and noise.
Love encompasses the delicate art of remembering every intricate detail that defines someone, the way they take their coffee, the songs that light up their soul, and the way they scrunch their nose when they laugh.
It extends to capturing those fleeting moments when they casually said something, unaware of the impact it held, yet love was there, silently listening.
Love is the act of unwavering observation, keenly attuned to the nuances and subtleties that make someone unique and treasured.
Love is listening without reacting, Love is accepting someone when you disagree with or fear what they’ve done. And Love has the power to heal.
Love remains in the moments of heartache, grief, and disagreement when two people can put aside their differences and remember how heavy and dense the path of being human already is, and find the commonality of humanness.
Self-Love is acceptance of your perceived flaws and mistakes, listening to your body, and giving it what it’s asking for.
True LOVE comes without agenda, ulterior intention, or selfless gain.
Love is learning what makes someone tick.
Love is a cozy blanket and an earth-shattering roar.
Absolute Love has the ability to transcend all space and time, all hate and suffering because once we remember that at the core of our heart, at the seat of our soul, at the impermanence of the conscious energy that exists within all life - that we can CHOOSE LOVE in every present moment, we will arrive to the place we’ve been searching for all along…
And we will remember the true essence of who we are, LOVE.
Love, in its multifaceted nature, can be expressed through everything; a hormone, an illusion, a selfish act of “I’m doing it because I love you.”
But the Love I am talking about here comes from within. A place of acceptance for this present moment as it is. Without changing, fixing, or avoiding it.
Love can be found in sadness, grief, beauty, pain, community, alone, in life, in death, and I invite you to sit with yourself long enough to carry around the words I resonate most with Love - unconditional acceptance and reverence. - and pour that into every aspect of yourself. The parts you avoid, the parts you deem not good enough, the parts you think are okay, all parts of you. Practice loving the breath that enters your lungs, the belly that holds your organs, the heart that beats for you without agenda, and the very temporary and unique expression of life you are.
Because if we have the capability of accessing this love that even animals and plants who cannot speak share, why not make it a practice to infuse this into every moment of your life?
And witness the true healing ability that love offers in our most uncomfortable and painful experiences of life.
The alchemical element of its power transmutes everything back to its source.
Feel into what this type of Love can do for your life.
Choose Love,
Sabrina - Kauai, HI - Member since 2019