“Love.”

What comprises love, and as human beings, how do we come to it? Why do we feel it?

What is love?

What do we know about love?

What must it have to be real love?

What must we do to get it?

How do I know I deserve it?

Can we still have it if we fail at it? How do we fail at love?

What can we expect from love?

What does love really mean?

Is it a chemical response, a primal instinct to bond, a learned behavior, an attempt to add meaning to our lives…a need to be filled?

How do we know it is love?

Define love.

If we break down love, what are the “components”? What does love need, to be love?

Well…

Trust, of course. Part of love is trust. Trust that we can depend on the object of our love. We must look for trustworthiness.

Desire. The kind that has us seeking until we find, that keeps us in it when we do. We must feel that we are desired. Let us look for desire.

Honesty, so that we know exactly what we are in and that we agree. We have to find love honestly and remain open and sharing.

Sacrifice. Tough as it sounds, we need to know, we need to do, whatever it takes.

Compassion. Love must show compassion, it must be compassion; it must accept and give freely.

Maturity. Only time can make us a true fertile ground for love and if we are not mature enough, love is muddled, one-sided, too rose-colored to be real.

Faithfulness. Love keeps company with fidelity and honor.

Right. The wrong kind of love gets us in trouble; it must be the right kind of love that we have. We must have integrity and agreement.

Comfort. If we cannot derive comfort from knowing we are loved or giving love, how can we say we love and are loved? Love must be, in part, comfort.

Satisfaction. The bloom of love surely must be in satisfaction for what we believe we have found in order for it to proceed and remain. It must be felt tangibly; surely, it must always please us. It cannot fail us.

Forgiveness. We must be able to forgive and be forgiven. Love has to include forgiveness, grace, and redemption.

So many parts, so many pieces, and so many more yet to list.

Love is complicated. Love is blind. Love is elusive. Love never doubts; love grants hope and faith. Love is all that matters. Love saves and is patient and kind and generous of spirit. Love attracts love, and love mends all wounds and endures all things; love makes us human and love survives death. Love is the greatest.

This is our understanding of love.

Love needs all of these aspects to be love. Right?

No. No. No.

Our list is a start, but it is incomplete.

Love is love. That’s it. You cannot know it—you can, and must, feel it.

It has no definition, no table of contents, no agenda, no contract. Love cannot be taken apart. It is not the sum of its parts. Love has no personality and no misgivings. Love surpasses everything, and nothing can be expected of it. It cannot be stolen, copied, ransomed, fooled, bought, or sold. Pieces cannot be extracted out, compared, weighed, valued, dismissed, or lost.

There are no questions to ask, no separate elements of it, no words to describe it, no contents or definition.

Love does not have requirements or directions; it does not fit into our situation or place in time. Love depends on nothing else and embodies only itself. Love is more and different than its parts added up. Forget the pieces you have been told make up love. They are crucial, but they are singularly and combined, not yet love.

What you know about love is not enough. You can never know enough about love.

We don’t know love—we feel love.

What makes love, love, is that we cannot understand it, we cannot frame it, we cannot put a ribbon on it or a heart around it and say that is love. All the tag lines and mottos and discussions and sentiments add up to other things by themselves—but not love.

Real love has no explanation; therefore, it is unconditional.

Real love is unconditional; therefore, it has no explanation.

Nothing, everything. Unconditional. Love.

Feel love, and you have everything and lack nothing.

Be still and live in unconditional love.

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