For some people, it is when you gaze and daydream about the person and 'worship' the person every waking hour. For others, it is that heart palpitation and warm feeling you get when the person is around. However, these are physical feelings which could change or dissipate with time. My definitions of love are:
Caring and Nurturing
My Asian upbringing put a lot of emphasis in the word CARE. Care is almost equivalent to love as I was not brought up to profess love openly. Growing up, I was instilled with advice such as "taking care of your parents when you've grown up", "when you become a wife, you must take care of your husband" and "when you are a mother, you must give the best care to your child". As such, I show my love to my family by caring and nurturing them. As a daughter, I show my love to my parents by providing for them financially. Due to my upbringing, I honestly could say that I have never utter the word' Love You' to my parents but it does not mean I do not love them. As a wife, I ensure that my husband has food, clean laundry and a presentable home to return to. Unfortunately this is the Asian way of showing love which can be considered rather strange in a western affectionate upbringing. As a mother, I am constantly nurturing and worrying for my little one. In short, I was brought up to show my love through my actions.
Honesty and Trust
Loving someone also mean being able to completely trust the person and be honest with the person. It is definitely not easy to give complete trust to someone and to be completely honest with someone. At times, we choose to omit information or give a white lie in order to protect our loved one. Do think of the consequence of this action. The world can be large but at the same time it could be so small that your white lie/omission of information could bite you back and result in a ridge between you and your love one. By being honest, it shows that you have nothing to hide and you completely trust the love you have between you. By trusting, you have gained a confidante to help you get through life. This is essentially the foundation of love.
Loving Unconditionally
Being able to love someone unconditionally is the purest form of love though it is also the hardest. It is not easy for anyone to accept someone for his/her strength, flaws, lifestyle, upbringing and characteristics. In short, being able to love and accept someone for who he/she is without expecting any changes from the other party. I have experienced being love unconditionally from my grandfather and I could definitely vouch that feeling will stay with you forever. Though I have no recollection of my childhood memories with my grandfather but somehow deep in my heart, I just have that feeling that he had loved me unconditionally. It is an intangible memory that will not fade.
Love has different meaning and magnitude for each of us. These are the meaning of love for me and I do wish that I could be loved in these three magnitudes. A Chinese scholar once said "I wish my health is better than yours and you die earlier than me"(literally translated from Chinese to English). It sounds rather nasty isn't it? But what he is implying is that he loves his wife so much and he understands the meaning of loneliness therefore he rather that his wife die first so that she doesn't have to suffer loneliness and heartbreak.
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