how do you know you are in love?

It started as an innocent question from a friend. she wanted to tease me about my many 'love' relationships.

'you seem to be in love so badly and then in a few months you say you were in love but aren't any more. How the FCUK do you know you are in love?'

I started by the most obvious answers:
when you want to spend every moment with the person
when you feel physical pain when you are away from each other
when you want to share the good news first with them and want to shield them from the bad news
when you feel that everything they do is awesome
when you feel that every thought needs to include them
when you say their name out loud while addressing someone else

and slowly and surely I was talking to myself more than her,

when you feel the world is lonely and the only one giving it company, color, music and any sense of existence is that one person.
when the smile on that face makes the entire universe glow.
when you would want to walk through fire to reach them.

she sat there transfixed. I noticed a tear at the threshold.
she let out a long sigh.

- so what happens?
- what happens?
- yeah, what goes wrong she says

I guess you always remain in love, just that you seem to want different things. you could make the heavens move for that one person only to find out they aren't as heavenly as you thought them to be. that doesn't mean you were never in love with them. it just means there is someone else out there who needs and warrants that love all the more.

and what if it sticks.

then you should hold on to it with dear life and guard it like a mother her baby, coz love like that, true love comes around once every cosmic approval. you are blessed and so is the one you love. then, when you want to do all this for the rest of your life, you know, you know you are in love!