Love is an investment of the heart in what is estimated to be of highest value. Love is the recognition and claiming of one's reflection and one's complement. Love is the bond that gives answer to one's yearning for connection, gives whatever release there may be from the void of isolation. Love is the imperfect striving of the imperfect person to achieve the impossible-perfect union. Love is what gives rise to grief when love or the beloved is absent or dead.
Love is what gives rise to despair when that which is loved absolutely, is absolutely inaccessible.
Love is what gives rise to indignation when the beloved is wronged. Love is what gives rise to rage when the beloved is harmed. Love is what gives rise to the agony of sorrow that invades the lover who has given pain to the beloved. Love is what makes it possible for vulnerability to entrust itself to the unknown other. Love is what makes it possible to stand before the other with all one's darkness exposed, and feel no shame.