We need others to love and we need to be loved by them. There is no doubt that without it, we too, like the infant left alone, would cease to grow, cease to develop, choose madness and even death. Love and the self are one and the discovery of either is the realization of both. Love can only be given, expressed freely. It can't be captured or held, for it is neither there to tie nor to hold.
Love is always open arms.
If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself. To learn to love is to be in constant change. The process is endless, for man's potential to love is infinite. Man has no choice but to love. For when he does not, he finds his alternatives lie in loneliness, destruction, and despair.