How do you recognize the difference between love and lust?
At my age I should know the difference, shouldn't I?
According to the online dictionary I found the following definitions:
Lust: Intense or unrestrained sexual craving
An overwhelming desire or craving
Intense eagerness or enthusiasm
Love: A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities or a sense of underlying openness.
As you can see...two very different meanings, yet difficult to distinguish at times.
Someone recently asked me, "How old were you the first time you fell in love?"
I said, "You mean with a man?"
She said, "Duh. Of course with a man."
Would you believe I had to think about it really hard and then I wanted to say 42, I was 42 years old when I first fell in love.
Now that would have raised eyebrows.
Instead I said, "4th Grade, my first crush was in the 4th grade and his name was Bobby. I crushed on him 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade and 7th grade. I probably would have continued crushing on him but I moved away after the 7th grade."
Every time I hear the song My Eyes Adored You it makes me think about that kid with the runny nose in Tough Skin jeans.
After that, it's just a blur. I can remember the ones that I had great sex with and the ones that I had really bad sex with -- the relationship part however is what gets blurred.
Even with my husband, the relationship part is blurry -- but I know that there is love, just not the type of love that occurs between a man and a woman. My love for him is more a friendship type of love.
So how do I know if what I am feeling right now is really love or lust in disguise?
My inquiring mind would like to know.
