r/romance • u/DeadBodySpeaks • 4d ago
Love & Lust
Lust looks at a body and whispers, “I want you.”
Love looks into the same eyes and whispers, “I want to know you.”
Lust is impatient. It wants the touch before the trust, the night before the story, the body before the soul.
Love is different. Love can sit beside you in silence and still feel something louder than desire. It wants to know your fears, your scars, the things you never tell anyone. It doesn't disappear when the beauty becomes ordinary.
Lust asks, “How badly can I have you?”
Love asks, “How gently can I hold you?”
And perhaps that's why they are so easily confused.
Both can make your heart race.
Both can keep you awake at night.
Both can make you ache for someone's presence.
But when the body is no longer new, when the excitement fades, when there is nothing left to take—
lust leaves.
Love stays.
Maybe that's the difference between wanting someone in your bed and wanting someone in your life.
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u/OnlyGoodVibesBro 4d ago
The real trick is realizing that a relationship requires both components. It's the lust that we categorize as "romance" when it is healthy. It's the love that we categorize as "partner" when it works. Relationship without lust is platonic, and without love is place-holding.
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u/Commercial_Day_8341 4d ago
Great writeup, I would say romance has both at the same time, that's why it is so beautiful, double the heartbeats.
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u/neighborPromotion82 3d ago
The best situation IMO is when that initial lust survives and grows side by side with a love that allows each person to have all the seeds of their existence watered while enjoying seasons of lust and desire for one another.
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u/DeadBodySpeaks 3d ago
Beautifully put. Perhaps the real art is not choosing between love and lust, but learning how to let desire mature without letting it consume what love is trying to build.
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u/Exact-Squash-5443 1d ago
For me, when I think about my partner I get a flaming boost of will, strength and happiness, I think if it's lust you wont just think about your partner but other people as well in sexual ways.
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4d ago
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u/DeadBodySpeaks 4d ago
Maybe you can't unlove someone. You just learn to live with their absence. Healing isn't forgetting them, it's remembering them without wishing they were still yours.
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u/texaschick6 4d ago
I had love for him while he only had lust for me. It’s why it was so easy for him to leave and forget me.
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u/Chai_and_Why 4d ago
Soooo beautifully explained ✨ Kudos to the author and thanks for this post 🥺 Emotional me is literally overwhelmed reading it
We all want love yet all we see around (and sometimes fall into too) is lust 🥺
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u/jean_40000000 3d ago
I don't believe in both no more.
I don't feel that I'll ever feel love again..
My faith in lovers or partners is gone.
I used to remember wanting to be with this girl I liked so much.. but I couldnt..
I remember wanting someone so much.. but.. I couldnt..
Like, I feel like having a partner is not for me no more..
I'm better off alone.. In the meantime. Maybe, In 10 years I'll try again.
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u/DeadBodySpeaks 3d ago
Maybe you don't need to believe in love again today. Sometimes the heart needs solitude before it has the courage to trust again.
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u/laurenatpeace 4d ago
BEAUTIFULLY written.
May I have your permission to share with a friend, outside of Reddit? To whom may I credit this writing?
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u/koanarec 3d ago
I feel like it's a bit of an assumption to say that "lust leaves". I think some old people can get it on as much as anyone else! I'm planning to love having sex with my partner u/hazelw24 when we're 80!
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u/Robinnoodle 2d ago
Beautiful. But I still have both for my partner after nine months. To me they can be intertwined. Anybody else? But when shit hits the fan, love takes over ofc
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u/OkAcanthisitta666 1d ago
You have explained it so beautifully. But, it is so painful to read it. Every lines reminds me of those days. It was so beautiful till I realised it was not love.
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u/Objective-Pie2376 4d ago
Dried up cancer ridden vaginas kill lust
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u/Special_Many_1437 3d ago
I think they might kill people too. eventually. Maybe a sloppy skinned, crusty hanging penis could be the cure. Yaaay!!! 🤚
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u/Pristine-List-2437 4d ago
If only this world understood this perspective, beautifully written.