What is Love in 576 Words

What is it? The short answer is a chemical reaction. The long answer, well, it's longer.

Love is sacrifice. Love is compromise and caring. Love is patience, consideration, and acceptance — but without any guilt, remorse, or regrets. Trying to explain what love is has never been easy. Trying to explain what love feels like, that's even more complicated.

I love my dog. She could chew my best shoes and it would not make me love her any less. Her beautiful brown eyes and long eyelashes melt away any anger or frustration I might have. How does she do that? I have no idea, but I can't imagine my life without her. That is love.

I accept my mother the way she is. She made mistakes in the past and hurt me, and continues to make choices I don't understand. But I also know she was alone and hurting herself when she made those mistakes. I accept the fact that she is who she is, and that is love.

I love my body. I care about my physical body and my mental health. I am not obsessing over stuff, but I am aware that this is the only body I have and the better I care for it, the better I feel. I like feeling good. I eat well, try to stay active, and treat myself. I've grown emotionally because I love myself enough to face my fears, change and grow. That is self-love.

There's also romantic love and I found it — I found the one. I never expected to find it the way I did. I hoped for it but also accepted the fact that it might not exist.

That one person — the only person who knows all of our flaws, scars, fears, pain — and still accepts us, allowing us to be who we are. That's unconditional love. A partner for life, as equals, team players for the game of life.

But how do we know when we find the one? Well, some of us get lucky on the first try. Some of us fail a few times before we find it, and sadly, some of us never do. It's like a game of chance. But when we do find it, we just know — because of how it makes us feel. It feels right, easy, and natural.

You know because you keep choosing them. Day after day, year after year, you'd still choose them over anyone else in the world. If you could travel across multiple universes with infinite possibilities, you'd still pick that same person every time. That's how you know it.

The best clue I can give you is: if you can be yourself around someone, that is a pretty good indication of something special.

Be yourself and the rest will unfold itself the way it should.

Love is a feeling that creates the energy to move forward, to live, to keep going. Sometimes we lose that feeling and we need help getting it back. It's not easy, but as long as we love ourselves, we'll find a way.

Love is EVERYTHING.