What is love?

i just think these moments of noticing her in her details is always very sweet....not to forget u see sth this beautiful...no matter what hapepn in the future~~

One of my friends said this to me tonight in reference to Laura. It really made me stop a moment and think. I really am lucky to have run across a person like this (or anyone previous). Anyone is lucky to have run across a person they care about - deeply or otherwise - at some point in their lives. No matter what the outcome of meeting that person was, you had found someone special, unique. Out of the billions of people in the world, you ran across someone who, for some reason, meant more to you than all the other hundreds of thousands of people you'll see in your life time. We shouldn't worry about whether s/he cares for you in the same way or if it's only to be a friendship. None of that matters, all that matters - if you truly care - is that you are around the person and that you (please forgive my cliché-ness) cherish every moment you're with them. No matter what happens in the future. And perhaps it is this thought that will help some of us continue past - but never forget - difficult times in our lives. Perhaps it is this thought that will allow some of us to live our lives to the fullest. Perhaps.

I went to a friend's Chorale concert tonight. It premiered a - imo - very diverse and great piece of music as a finale to this year's Chorale group in which the conductor is resigning. At the end, the Tenor section leader gave a small speech recognizing the composer of the piece who was attending. After which, he began to talk about the conductor. By the end of his speech both he and the conductor were in tears. (I actually felt a little teary myself watching them). There were two grown men on stage, being watched by a couple hundred people, emotions laid bare. They were crying for how much they respected, cared for, and loved each other. Yes - loved. It was clear to me - and I'm sure to most audience members - that there was a deep bond between the two of them. Most people seem to forget that you can love without romantic interest. If someone asks you, "What do you think of when you think of 'love'?" - how would you respond? I would be guilty of saying the first thing that came to my mind - romantic love between two people in which there is attraction beyond friendship, where there is physical attraction, where there is a sense of wanting to spend long - infinite - periods of time with the person. The long-walks-on-the-beach type of love. But there is that love that exists between friends - man/man, woman/man, woman/woman - in which there is only deep caring for each other without the additional attributes of romantic love. People say "I love you," to their family members - but obviously (well 99.9% of the time) they don't have a romantic attraction. Close friends will love each other as well. In each of these cases love does not constitute romanticism, but perhaps something more? I don't know, I'll leave that up to you to decide. It's always amazing to see things that we all know in the back of our mind played out before us, giving us something to think about, and giving us an additional perspective of the world.

Has the word love lost its meaning overtime? Is it thrown around haphazardly? I may have been guilty of this at times in my past. When does deeply caring for someone turn to love? "You will know," they say - but how? Is love innate? Love is, afterall, a word made to describe a feeling. But does it do it justice? The feeling itself is so complicated, so many variables, so many different perspectives between individuals. Is love a universal concept or individual? As defined is it a conglomeration of individual interpretations of the feeling? Perhaps its safer to forget about the definition of love - any type of love. Rather, let the feeling speak for itself, don't rely on people telling you "you're too young to know what love is" or similar. Perhaps that feeling evolves as we grow older - and with it our definition. Well, I guess that's all I have to say on that.

And to end, a final thought that I will fall asleep thinking of and which sparked my friend's comment:
i can't get over her smile...even when she's barely smiling two little dimples form.....and when she smiles and tilts her head to the side (usually when she's joking about something)...:: sigh::