Throughout history, literary writers, psychologists, scientists, and philosophers tried to define the word ‘love.’ According to Gottman and Gottman (2017), love is not a single concept but a process that constitutes three stages. In this theory, the initiation of love is triggered by neurotransmitters, and then a person gradually builds feelings that promote trust and loyalty (Gottman & Gottman, 2017). There is no full-fledged meaning in the world that could describe such a phenomenon as love. Each person has his or her understanding of this feeling, and each includes his or her own categories in it. Love is relational to each individual, yet people somehow know they are talking about the same concept from different perspectives. Many associates this feeling with affection and attachment to another person. Indeed, this feeling often accumulates over a prolonged period.
In my understanding, love is the ability to feel and understand each other, forgive, and accept a person as he or she is, without trying to change. It is about accepting the loved one fully with all his or her faults and good sides. If you love someone, you do not build an illusion of that individual as it happens when you like someone. Love is about caring for another person without ulterior motives. The ability to talk to each other, understand and hear the one you love, and forgive mistakes can only be to the one who truly loves, appreciates, and respects you. The feeling of love can be different, it can be the love of a man for a woman or a brother for a sister, or it can be the love of parents for their child. Love should be understanding and patient. To carry the feeling of love through many years, one needs to be attentive to their partner and sometimes step over oneself to make compromises.
Reference
Gottman, J., & Gottman, J. (2017). The natural principles of love. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 9(1), 7–26.