empathy

The Difference Between Being “In Like” And Being “In Love”

Photo by Kasia Derwinska

How under-estimated the word “Like” is and how over-rated the word “Love”.
 
They are way different, like “Land” and “Sea”. One is sure, seen and felt, safe, wellnavigated with no surprising turns or tides. The other is sudden, overwhelming, unexpected, and it can blind you to the edge of drowning.
 
“Like” is when you “see” the good and the bad and know you want them both, you can handle them both and you can live with them both. Your heart can go off-beat sometimes but your mind is always on track.
“Love” is when you rush to the good and “overlook” the bad. Your heart and mind are full of Oxytocin that blurs your vision and blocks your good-thinking. It just takes you by the hand to a road untrodden and leaves you there on your own, unaccompanied but by a messy heart and a dysfunctional mind. You spend your first nights wandering, exploring, awed, but after a while, when the haze fades away, you find yourself lost, lonely and unhappy. You try to find your way back but you can’t. You can no longer see your footprints because simply you didn’t make any; you were engulfed in a whirlwind and flew all the distance with your feet never touching the ground. And now all you can see behind is only the misleading traces of the love you followed.
That’s why you have to “like” before you “love”. That should be the right sequence of feelings, not the other way round. Like yourself before you love it, like your partner before you love him/her. Because if you didn’t, you’ll end up lost, torn and in conflict between a heart that’s forcing you to stay and a mind that begs you to leave.
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Anonymously submitted to ArtParasites

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