With St Valentine's Day this weekend I wonder what people see as the emotion and feeling of Love and how they define it and where they find it. We love our partners, our families and friends, our children and pets, we love reading, chocolate, music, TV shows etc. Do we use the word Love too easily or not enough. How do you know that you are In Love? 

Love is a Many Splendored Thing - share your thoughts of Love with the forum

Oh and if you met your partner through naturism why not tell us here https://www.anaturistworld.com/forums/topic/14/did-you-meet-your-partner-via-naturism

I think that we maybe have a tendency to over use the word Love. Yesterday I was listening to the radio and the DJ referred several times to different tracks as "loving them." Steve and I have often asked our boys to not use "hate" so much. Don't say I hate beetroot say you don't like it. We feel the term Hate is too strong an emotion to use randomly throughout the day, maybe it is the same with Love. Maybe we are in danger of weakening the word by over use. If we tell our partners we love them and we also say we love chocolate does that put our most dear companions on the same level as chocolate? The Spanish have a word to love - amor and yet when it comes to partners more commonly use the word  querer - to want. "I want you!" I wonder if that is a good or bad differentiation?

Love is not an easy feeling. I grew up expecting to Love my father even though he damaged the natural bond a parent and child should have the emotions of being hurt and partly hating him and yet still feeling some sort of love or duty to love still remained.

To me if we were to keep Love as a powerful emotion the feeling should be limited. Unless we find some stronger word to use - adoration, devotion.... If we use the terms Love and Hate as extremes then maybe I should only Love those things that I would be heartbroken to lose. Just as I should only hate those things that are highly damaging to my emotional well being. I certainly Love Steve and my sons. They are my life, they shape my life and if I was to lose them the devastation  would be unbearable. I would certainly rather be the one hurt or lost than it be them. Love on this level seems quite straightforward.

After that things get a little more complicated. I love my mother even though she frustrates me and dissapointed me, I find myself loving Steve's parents as they have been so kind and good to me and I feel through Steve a connection to them - I have a want to be there for them and yet also feel that they are there for us. 

Do I love less important things like chocolate- not really! They make me happy maybe or boost me when I am down. Things that people who Love you do. Maybe as I went years not feeling real love we look for placebo love and connect things that make us short term happy with love and that feeling of need for love. When the Spanish say "I want you" are they really saying "I need you." 

Until I met Steve I always believed that I would never fall in love. Probably actively worked against the idea. Although to love is a strength and makes you strong, it is also can make you weak and vulnerable. As someone who had been hurt and let down I never wanted to be in a situation where someone could destroy me. However, when I met Steve I fell in love so fast and so easy, I couldn't have fought it no matter how hard I may have wished to. For a while I hated that vulnerability and mistrusted myself (not him) for allowing that to happen. However, I soon realised that the love I felt filled me and completed me in a way that nothing else could ever do. 

My love for my children is different. Stronger in some ways. weaker in others. They are a product of Steve and I and our mutual love. They are also our responsibility. They remain, forever, the babies I carried, delivered and held to my skin. That parental love and bond remains. They are also two people who I love as people and enjoy having in my life.

No matter what bonds we may have if they were to become people who didn't deserve my love through terrible behaviour then like my connection with my father the Love would be removed. Even if my heart pained forever. 

Some deep and concerning thoughts, Anna. I grieve for your loss; but rejoice for your ending up with Steve and the boys. Your family love shines through your photos and articles and posts in very encouraging ways.

I agree that the word 'love' is tossed about to a degree that it has largely lost its punch in today's world (at least in the English language), leaving writers and speakers desiring to find the right communication tool having to employ stronger terms.
My dad was a stickler for the proper use of language in the home; something for which I am now grateful, even though what he instilled in me is now quite often a catalyst for annoyance when I hear others butchering language.  Example:  "That's a whole nuther thing..."  There's no such word as 'nuther.' Please stop.  :)

Now back to 'love.'  When one of us kids said, "I love..." and filled in the blank with any food, music or anything else that did not have a heartbeat, he would say "You cannot love an inanimate object. You may like it very much; but you can't love it."
  We all tired of hearing it, of course. But as he was an imposing person, my older sister and I just rolled our eyes and kept going.  My younger sister was the rebel.  One day in her teens, she said, "I love pizza."  Following my dad's predictable response, she said, "Yes, I can. I love pizza."  He cracked up laughing.

  The Greeks have four words that are usually translated 'love.'  Storge, which is an emotional bond based on empathy.  Philia, the love that exists between friends.  Eros, having to do with erotic/romantic love. Agape, which is an unconditional, all-giving and expecting nothing in return love which is only properly used in reference to the love of God toward His creation.

I strongly bear three of those for my wife. She's the most important person in the world and even our children know that and understand it.  I cannot be arrogant enough to claim agape love for her; but I can honestly say I would die to keep her from harm or to defend her honor.

Perhaps one problem with English is not so much how we use it, but that as a language it is not specific enough.  On the other hand, if my dad was still around today I think I would openly challenge his logic also. Can't love an inanimate object?  Then chocolate must have a heartbeat...

Thanks for sharing these lovely thoughts and memories SamD50.

I wonder if it is also posible to Love naturism. If so what is it we would love. What it does for us as individuals, the joy of a naked afternoon, or its possibilities...