Love is

A dream from the other night: *friend's cat butts head and affectionately rubs against my hand while sprawled out in front of me*

I'm curious about what prompted the sudden affection.

"Tell me the different words you know for love."-cat named Kitty Smalls looking intently with eyes wide open

*me, surprised the cat is literally talking to me--? But, try to be present and make the most of the occasion to engage*

"Well, huh there's amorous, romance, tüng in Vietnamese, gizaagin in Anishinaabemowen, and a bunch of words in Greek and latin that I can try to name off. Like philae, a love from hardship, solidarity and camaraderie; ludos, the playful kind of love like when kindly teasing or dancing and joking with someone. Eros which is a sort of physical/romantic love which I think can apply to platonic cases too. Pragma--practical love through actions; storge, familial love like when you appreciate a sibling or cousin; agape for humanity which I think is a bit like the African concept of Ubuntu in maybe Zulu. I think that's most of what I know… ?"

Kitty Smalls: looks with a pause, head angled staring at me, still mostly upside down before "speaking" with great confidence as it resumes writhing with contentment.

"Ah, you see--I don't know anything about those words. But not knowing them doesn't diminish the fact that I want to express something and that it all means the same thing to me. How would it be fair if I had to know any of them to love someone?"

…

I guess the set up to the dream was quietly about wanting to know why the cat wanted to give affection to me.

In waking life, we all kind of know about the idea that love is love etc. and depending on how I feel, I'd probably get a bit agitated that someone were telling me what I already know.

But no explanation is really needed for being present with kindness from anyone, even yourself. Ever. And that can be really challenging to trust and accept at times. Hope that helps for whoever needed to hear this.