Love? What is it?

I was asked by a friend of mine how you know if you're in love with someone. After mentally running through the proverbial and often used expressions, I offered a head tilt and delved into my own brain to self-reflect for a moment. It was a good question. How do you know? Oftentimes, it gets confused with other emotions like lust, desire, even general love. At what point do you know that you have made that leap from loving someone to being "in love" with someone?

I would imagine that you would know by the tingling in your fingers when you touch that person, the fluttering of your heart when their name is mentioned or when their presence is known.  It doesn’t just mean those stereotypical hearts and cupids - those usually only last the first few months of any new relationship. It’s so much more than that. It's those moments when you look at the person and feel this unbearable urge to break them in two with a hug while at the same time wanting to wrap them in layers of soft cotton so they can’t be hurt or shattered by anything. It's more than just wanting to be in the same room with them, its being the room for them. It's being more than the air they breathe, its being their lungs to help them breathe. It's having a difficult time not having some form of contact with them, be it a hand on their arm, your legs touching under the dinner table, or just feeling their breath upon your skin. It's the desire of having them stand beside you throughout anything that comes your way. It's not hiding behind a persona, not worrying about if they "get" you or not, it is simply knowing that you feel your best when you are together.

I don’t know how else to put it: being in love keeps people together because they never stop just being there for each other.