“What is love, baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no
more” – that is the first thing that comes to mind when asked about the
definition of love. And it has some truth to it. You have to let yourself be
volnurable, possible to get hurt. When you open your heart to someone you
gamble if she/he will accept your feelings and istead of draining your heart,
fill it with more happiness. Definitely it can be a painful experience in our
lives, but it is one that can be the most beautiful thing imaginable, that
makes all of our everyday struggles easier and any moment that is shared with
your loved one (even the most mundane and boring one) incredible. To
quote a song from the band The Correspondents: “It’s better to have and lost
than never loved at all / Just love the lust you’ll have to leap without the
fall.”
Grzegorz from
Poland
“Love is when you care more for a person than than you
care for yourself. Love is also when you say: be careful, I’m with you or do you
need something? For me Love is the only that does not hurt
us.”
Felli from
Germany
“Love is the opposite of fear. I don’t really get it,
but that’s what they say! Now I don’t really know what the opposite is, but
maybe it’s not hate. Maybe it is fear after all. So the real question for this
Valentine’s is what is fear for you? What are you afraid of? Being alone maybe
on Valentine’s? Well, nobody likes to be alone. But tough shit, that’s what
love’s for isn’t it? So love is a game. It’s a mixture of feelings, manipulated
through the images the human mind picks up. It feels good, when things are bad.
That’s why we need war. War is good, because without it we wouldn’t know how
good life is in the West.”
Filippos from Greece
“For me Love is that connection which connects YOU with
EVERYTHING.”
Zar from
Pakistan
“What is love? Love is a severe mental condition –
Platon. Love is about not even trying.. love is instinct to
belong.”
Rodrigo from
Chile
“Love… is… putting someone else’s needs before
yours.”
Daria from
Poland
´Love is what unites us all and makes us stronger. No
matter how dark times are, love will make us come over. so start with
love.”
Max from
Germany
“Love can’t be defined.
Love is to be felt.
Love
is ‘Good morning’ message.
Love is ‘Take the scarf. It’s cold today’
Love
is finding the time even if you have none.
Love is one soul in two
bodies.”
Beata from
Poland
“Love is about that one cannot express him/herself
correctly…love is about that dreaming all the time…love is about loving a
friend, an animal, nature…love is organic”
Barış
from Turkey
“Love is when you stop thinking logically and you doing
things by your heart… Breaking the rules and becoming more productive and
happy. Love can be real or platonic…People falling love in mysterious ways
and the only common line is that they are becoming more happy and
peaceful.”
Dimitrios from
Greece
“Love = a feeling which can be the best and the worst
thing in the world… It somehow gives you comfort and balance or f*ck you up
badly. It can be anything.”
Mária from Hungary
“Love is being incredibly happy with someone. Even when
they are not next to you, you are smiling because of the thought that you have
them. Love is feeling very lucky you have found this person, being amazed by
them every day. Love is understanding the other, putting yourself in their
shoes before judging them, motivating them and knowing they make the best
version of you. Love is the constant need to make the other person happy, to
surprise them and not even doubting for a moment they want the same for you.
Love is repeating “I love u” and getting as cheesy as you never thought you
would be just because when you are with your special person, you can be silly,
you are free to say whatever comes to your mind, you laugh and are a bit tra la
la. Last but not least love is finding your partner more and more attractive
with time. To me love should be simple and fun, otherwise whatever it is
you feel, sooner or later turns into a disaster.”
Tsvetelina from Bulgaria
“I prefer the love maybe buddhists would use. They say
true love is opening your heart to all human beeings and all creatures and
created things in the universe. Having the knoledge that everything is
connectedwith each other and knowing exactly if you spread your Love to
everything and everyone – this love comes back to you and fill your heart with a
big feeling which is beyond words.”
Arkadius
from Germany
“Love is a difficult word to define. Everyone has
different experiences of love and as such different definitions. I can’t give
you a definition for love but I can tell you my experience. I met Lisa by
coincidence on the Camino de Santiago. No one believed it would last (not even
us). We knew each other only a few days before we went back home. I had never
been in a relationship before so I didn’t know what to expect. We started our
relationship as a long distance. It was rough.
People told me we were moving
too fast… “You’ve told her you love her already? That’s brave.”, “You’re meeting
her parents already? That’s brave!”, “You’re moving in together already? That’s
really brave!”. I wasn’t brave. We did what felt right for us.
Before Lisa, I
had a hard exterior. I have always been sensitive but I never showed it. I
didn’t like anyone to get close. I didn’t let anyone know what I was thinking
and I trusted very few people. I feared vulnerability. Lisa chipped away at my
exterior from day one. It was very very annoying! She kept at it until she got
to my core. I often put on a cold front when I sensed I was being vulnerable.
She kept chipping away. Now I have no hard exterior.
Love is when someone
excepts you for in all your shades. They see your downfall and make up for your
shortcomings. We might not like what we always see but we have excepted each
other fully… good and bad. I love her when she’s happy, when she’s depressed or
when she throws a temper tantrums because she does the same for me. She picks me
up when I’m down. Unless we are both down…that’s bad…then we have to call our
mums.
It won’t be long before I say the words “for better, for worse, for
richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”
I
cannot imagine being able to love her more but every day I
do.”
Ryan from UK
Photo taken by Petar Milošević