Day 18: What the greeks were really trying to say

In our exploration of love we couldn't ignore the fact that the Greeks broke it down into a number of different types:

• Eros: romantic, passionate love...

• Philia: intimate, authentic friendship...

• Erotoropia or ludus: playful, flirtatious love ...

• Storge: unconditional, familial love ...

• Philautia: compassionate self-love ...

• Pragma: committed, companionate love...

• Agápe: empathetic, universal love

We see all of these as an expression of what we've been pointing to as love, moving from the profoundly impersonal universal love described as 'agápe' to the very immediate and physical love described as 'eros'.

What it says to us is that the essence of love has many expressions, appearing different depending on the moment and context, and to which we will create different meaning from.

If we always expect love to look and feel the same we potentially miss its many manifestations and the many opportunities to experience love.

The Greek versions are just their way of explaining some of these manifestations. They are made up boundaries to help us become more aware of something that is invisible and without limit.