I know it when l feel it. I have no idea how to explain it. ☺

"Being in love" is, a misunderstanding between two fools, at best, or, temporary insanity, at worst.

Just plain, unconditional LOVE, on the other hand, is what makes the world go around and the stars shine...

When you're in love, you know it. Without a doubt.

We marry those that emulate our childhood-alcoholism, physical and emotional abuse and control issues.We get healthy, the marriage fails and our needs change.

I truly could not follow what you are saying here. While I share your question of "How is it that anyone can say I don't love you anymore?" I do not understand your statement that your concept of love was built on a false premise of Ego. What exactly do you mean and how did it lead to the failure of your marraige. To me, loving someone as part of your family unit is about compromise. Realizing that you want what your want and they want what they want. Sometimes it is the same and you both get to have fun, sometimes you make accomodations for you family member. That can be your wife, your child, your mother, your sister or whomever.
Now I am certain you were talking about romantic love which would apply to a significant other only but love is about something more to me.

I have learned the hard way how meaningless life can when there is no one to share things with...

I was late to marriage,only until 43,an old bachelor, low income jobs and the hurt of rejections had me do without love in my life for many years,regrets? Perhaps,no kids, no continuation of my robust immune system into another generation. But the marriage went 27 years(26 great ones,not so good for my poor wife with cancer in her last year). If you luck out and marry your best friend,confidant,and the person wh[agnostic.com] will be there for you,it's the best of all worlds.....

As I grow older my idea of love has changed so much. I realised I like taking care of others, and I've grown more comfortable with the fact I too want to be in anothers thoughts. When I was young it was all about passion, now it's about sharing and a deep commitment to another person.

Love for me is another of those tricky words meaning so much to so many I don't know if I label my emotions in the same ways as another/others. All I really know is that there are some people I am comfortable around, some I love to see, and its the number of negatives that makes me not want to be around others so I think for myself that maybe love is the absence of fear. I repeat htis is only my take and its only in thi s moment

One has to love oneself first before one can truly love another.

A few years ago, I was divorced after 35 years, and it was very hard to deal with. I'm still not completely over it. Luckily, it was an amicable divorce. She is 7 years younger than me and had things she felt she needed to do for herself, after so long as a wife and mother, which I understood, though it didn't make it any easier. Yes, I have been reassessing what love means, and what it is to love another person. Let me know if you figure it out, because I haven't.

Love is a hard one. Yes ego is involved, but so are hormones, reproductive drive, and a lot of ongoing effort towards the other person. We often give to get in relationships. But if we don't get what we want or need, and then don' t express it, we become resentful. Or we do express it and the other person can't or won't provide it. Americans tend to put themselves first, so we often have a "my way or the highway" mentallity. Or we can be givers who are taken advantage of and turn resentful. All kinds of possible roadblocks to successful relationships. All we can do is communicate as much as possible, and if we are lucky the other person can meet us halfway, or we learn to accept that they can't or won't meet us halfway, but we choose to accept them as they are anyway. All super hard things to do. But in the end, I think we need to strive for acceptance of ourselves and others as much as possible, while protecting ourselves emotionally as well. And all that is true with no particular baggage. Add tramma or mental illness and it gets even harder. Just try to be the best you, you can be. And be a better you each day going forward if you can. No one ever said the journey was easy, but I think it can still be wonderful. Good luck.

I think when your in love with someone it is a yearning to be with them and it is more about interaction, often becoming dependent on them for happiness. I think when you truly love someone it is more about wanting the best for them . True love is desiring the best for them even if you know your not going to be a part of it. If you are fortunate enough to have this kind of love and it is reciprocated then you have something amazing that can withstand anything. JMO

Love is just another word for bonding ! Bonding is the stronger word though !

I actually fell in love once, 19 years ago. It did not last. Lust was a big part of it as was intelligence. Within that brief time we sought to understand our feelings and believed that those who love each other desire to know and understand each other ever more intimately.
There is also an active aspect by which the partners embody their common affection in joint endeavor and work.
Affection assumes the form of a donation of oneself. It is this affection in its fullness which we call love.
Love really believes in the absolute value of the beloved, who in love is always held to be in greater and incomparably more valuable than the loving subject, because real love of its essence aims at the absolute. The absolute is its only object; all other objects leave it unsatisfied. However much the lover may grow in love, he always feels small, poor, powerless, the lessor of the two. Every donation of himself is felt as imperfect in contrast to the loveliness of the beloved.
The discovery of the other person is a revelation, the discovery of the other person in love is an even more amazing revelation.
This identity of the other was seen as equivalent to one’s own, and the awareness of this equivalence was the specific reason for the joy born of affection.
Sadly, love may be born suddenly but remains an ideal more than a reality unless each partner strives very hard to translate into daily reality. The stress of the outside world can impact on one or both. We worked together closely, in a situation where people would feel threatened if they knew. We moved in together and managed to keep our relationship unknown at work. The stress was too much, she moved out and before I knew it, she was with someone else.
Her feelings for me though seemingly intense, just "went away".