The act of loving involves participation.
Unconditional loving requires unconditional participation.
Loving any process involves having the desire to participate in that process.
Loving someone involves having the desire to participate in his or her life.
Loving someone also involves having a desire for that other person to likewise have a desire to participate in your life.
In the most harmonious forms of loving both people have a very similar level of desire to participate in each other’s life.
Commitment involves having a desire to create a shared life together. It is the willingness for each participant to give some of the attention he or she could give to creating his or her own life to creating a life together instead.
The strength of commitment depends on the unconditional willingness to participate and the actual practice of unconditional participation. As either of these wanes, so to does the strength of commitment.
Seldom, if you have a child or children. Just wait.
Very true.
In my experience love and relaitionships are subjected to periods of fluctuation. If you love, desire, are commited to a person the feeling you have for that person are open to change as that person grows and develops. We will always be changing until the day we die for each new experience will alter that person and their perspective on things. As this person changes so will the feelings you have for that them and the level of commitment you have for them.
This isn’t a bad start as far as defining love goes. However, I can think of quite a few examples that would require enlarging what you have here:
Loving yourself - and not in an unhealthy way, but in the way that allows you to treat yourself with kindness.
Loving a memory - sometimes when people leave our lives, memories are all we have. Which, I should add, are no longer participated with, except abstractly.
Loving an inanimate object - like a place, maybe a place that you’re attached to. Not necessarily a marital aid.
Love of those that can’t love you back - including animals, babies, and people that refuse to return the feeling.
And then there are the Greek classifications - love of your friend, love of knowledge, love of your brother, your lover and all those.
So yeah, not bad. But love is a big old thing. Some have even gone to put it at the very center of their metaphysic - the entire world as love, or God as love.