I've often heard people say "I'm in love" a few weeks after meeting a new boyfriend or girlfriend, but that really doesn't cut it with me. At that point in a relationship you are still running at full pace... arranging dates, spending time together, discovering new things about each other, being intimate with each other, putting on your best show and feeling all giddy with excitement. For me, that's not the true measure of being "in love" because it's coloured by everything that's going on. I think you realise you are in love with someone much later on, when the initial excitement has worn off and you've faced some storms together and held each other through them. It's a deeper connection that goes beyond dates, discovery and sex. It's based more around honesty and trust. For me, that's what it means to be in love.
Hmmm different kinds of love. Yes, the initial weak-at-the-knees, butterflies in the stomach, 'hope-I-don't-f***-this-up' stage is wonderful and is a necessary phase you go through, I think, before love stretches out, settles and (hopefully) becomes truly profound. It's a shame the English language has only the one word for both of these and the many other emotional experiences that we know under that umbrella term 'love'. Beth x
i agree agree luckly in mine there's two words, for friends and family and one for partners! ouch, honest!