Difference between being in love and loving someone

[Littlewhiteflower]

I have a weird question for you
Do you see a difference between being in love and loving someone?
I told my boyfriend I knew he loved me, but I didn't know if he was still in love with me. He didn't understand what I meant. Do you guys understand it?

[Chris516]

I have a weird question for you
Do you see a difference between being in love and loving someone?
I told my boyfriend I knew he loved me, but I didn't know if he was still in love with me. He didn't understand what I meant. Do you guys understand it?

Yes, Being 'in love', is different from actually 'loving someone'.

Being 'in love' is sort of like feeling passionate about someone, or even something. It could be passion about an animal like the ASPCA(American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), Save The Whales, or dog/cat rescue organization. It could be a passion about the opera or classical music. It could be a passion about being 'one with nature'.

Actually 'loving someone' is taking a keen interest in everything about them. Including if they were to have a medical emergency and seeing that they get the proper medical care to save their life.

[hmrambling]

To love someone is to have unconditional positive regard for someone. I can love my parents, my sister, aunt, and uncle.

To be in love has a romantic connotation and is feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection with a sexual desire and passion.

There are couples that clearly love each other, but not have a desire or passion toward on another. For some couples, they may love one another early on, but may take even more time to really be 'in love'.

I personally believe that it took my SO longer to develop a romantic passion in our relationship than it did for me. She said that she loved me within a few months, but I could tell that it took longer for her to feel and trust the romantic passion of love.

Know that the romantic passion of love will not always be there. It kind of ebbs and flows, and evolves throughout the relationship.

[differentcountries]

It is different to care for someone, and to feel a passion for them. I too know that my bf loves me, but it still makes me happy to see that he is crazy about me. It dont want to be loved just in the grand sense, I want to be loved in the flesh and with that little "extra" spark. It is great that your SO loves you in more ways than one!

[Honour]

I'll just leave this here.

“Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. … That is just being ‘in love’, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.” - Captain Korelli's mandolin, Louis de Bernières.