What is love?

So I have been pondering...
The great eternal mystery...
Tonight I watched a DVD "Feast of Love"... "A meditation on love and its various incarnations, set within a community of friends in Oregon. and is described as an exploration of the magical, mysterious and sometimes painful incarnations of love."

I find myself torn when it comes to love - on the one hand I believe that love is a force beyond us, beyond rationality... its a karmic connection... a sense of the world changing shape around two people so that things just make sense in a new way.
On the other hand I have a more pragmatic sense that love is often over romanticised... we grow up believing that we are princesses who will one day find our perfect other halves... but in reality love is made not found... it is born of a willingness to love... it is never perfect, often painful, its wonderful and hard and full of joy and fear and longing and hope and growth and courage.

This quote resonates for me in some ways... "Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it...It really is worth fighting for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more." - Erica Jong

and I like this little one "Love is friendship set on fire." - unknown

I agree in some ways that "We love because it's the only true adventure." - Nikki Giovanni

And this one rings cynical but true : "Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit." - Peter Ustinov

And in the comedy of this there is truth... "To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down." - Woody Allen,

And this one reminds me loving someone is not necessarily about finding that someone special, but it is about seeing the special in someone...

"To laugh often and love much... to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to give one's self... this is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The mind determines what is possible. The heart surpasses it.'' - Pilar Colinta. Sometimes love surprises intellect... and leaves it in the dust trail...

Random musings on love...
No answers...
Just thoughts...