Love....what does it mean to YOU?

I was recently talking to someone about love and what it means to them. He's been in a new relationship for a while and it took some hard work to get to this point in his life. As we talked through it, I realized that love means something different for everyone. For some, it's the desire to protect someone else at all costs. Jumping in front of a bullet for them, etc. For others, it's doing whatever is necessary to keep them happy. Sometimes it's big displays of affection like proposing over and over again every year because you botched the first one. And for others, it's a quiet respect and reverence that isn't necessarily shared with the world.

When I was younger, I thought for sure that I was in love. I envisioned spending the rest of my life with one person and truly for a long time thought that it would work out. I think part of the problem with falling in love so young (15 to be in fact) is that the heart isn't equipped to deal with the trials and tribulations that come with adulthood. I wasn't mature enough to handle the difficulties in our lives and it ended. As I grew older, I had an excellent foundation for what I wished for though. I had an idea of the man I was looking for and the characteristics that I wanted him to possess.

And then I met the hubs. Emotions have never been easy for me to describe with words, but I know that I do not wish to live one day without him. I know that I would go to the ends of the earth and back to ensure his happiness. And to make him feel loved. I know that I would take a bullet for him if it meant that he could continue to live. And I know that he's my best friend. To me, that is my love for him. I adore him. And I thank my lucky stars above every day for being able to wake up next to him and fall asleep with him at the end of the day.

But what does it mean to you? I'm curious...

"The most wonderful of all things in life is the discovery of another human being with whom one's relationship has a growing depth, beauty and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing; it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of divine accident, and the most wonderful of all things in life."
-Sir Hugh Walpole