What means "Love" for you? ( Archived) (2)

A thread of Happy_2009 " WHAT IS THE BEST WORD TO SOMEONE YOU LOVE?" inspired me to this.

Some of you, may smile now. Others may think, "Oh, what a question...", again others may think it`s an "easy question". My experience is, this question is maybe a lot, but surely not easy to answer.
Well, we all love some of movies, music, art etc. We love our parents, our Kids, friends and Pets and we love our wife, husband or girlfriend and friend. Love has many different colors, because the love at a Pet is different as to a movie, for example. My question is about the love between man and woman. The point is, what do you understand if you say "I love you"? For my thoughts, this three words will said often, to often in a wrong meaning. An example: I need a lot of time until I would say that, because, I cannot say it after two or three weeks, it would be a lie. I cannot say I love you, because of a pic or some small talk over months. It can be, I fall in love, of course, but not more. Unfortunately some people are thinking, to love someone is the same as he/she is a kind of property. I say, love is nothing like that. Love is a special feeling between two people, without any kind of claims. It means giving and taking, without any thoughts about what come back. (For example, I buy a gift for 40$ and I want back the same.) Love is a gift, and I give it not to anybody. I can say I love you, but cannot await, to be loved as well. However I can "work" on it. To love somebody also means, let him/her go, without any claims. I have needed a lot of lessons to learn this, and I am not sure, whether I have already learned all the chapters...
Am I wrong with that? I don`t know, but I know that a lot of people think different. Love, respect, honesty, loyalty and truth are small words, but their meaning is much bigger than anything else. And for some people it seemed to be impossible, to stand behind this.
I am curious of your thoughts.