Love or Lust?

One of the common quiz questions in a personality quiz is "Is it love or lust?".

I think we often do not know or can't really tell the difference. Often love goes undercover with lust being the obvious persona taken. It is easy to sense or feel lust but love? A question that sometimes take a long time or never to answer.

In the dictionary love is defined as:

"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 oneness. " or
"A feeling of intense desire and attraction toward a person with whom one is disposed to make a pair; the emotion of sex and romance. "

Lust is defined as:

"Intense or unrestrained sexual craving. ""

Intense seems like a common word here. When emotions get intense, clarity goes out the window. Love and lust slide in and out of each other like sliding doors. What one perceives to be love may well be lust and what may have started from lust could well turn out to be love.

The difference I feel, is time.

Lust takes only an instant. Love only shows with time. However, sometimes lust lasts for a long time and you wonder, is it love or just a desire that went on for a long time? Both make you do things out of normal, out of control, out of your conscious plane and both bring about deep, intense emotions.

I have come to realised lust is no longer a male perogative. Gentlemen, women feel lust too and do not be surprised if it's more than men. The only difference is women are better at keeping and hiding it in. This question of love versus lust is no longer just reserved for men. Talk about equality!

I have heard many a woman ask this question : "Do I love him or is it just lust?". Frankly I have no idea on how to discern this but I do know one thing. Every woman has instinct and an inner voice. Listen hard to that voice and one may just find that elusive answer.

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