Do you understand Love?

It has been quite a while since I have posted and I have certainly had the itch to write.  It's been obvious that something has been missing for me, but the problem is that I just haven't found anything to write about.  I didn't want to force a post.  Today, however, the HyWy posed an interesting epiphany that she didn't truly understand love.  I thought about that and it occurred to me that I think I have an understanding of romantic love, but what about Love in the broader sense?  The Love that we hold for those we know and don't know.  The Love that I try to give to the universe.  

I never put much thought into the distinction between romantic love and Love.  A sensible question might be what is there to understand?  The two types of love are the same in that they are given and received unconditionally.  They aren't truly the same though.  Romantic love is rooted in our feelings for each other.  It develops, grows, and (unfortunately) can be lost.  Love on the other hand is in all of us (some more than others).  I believe that Love is born within everyone and in some it develops, but in others it is buried.  Not everyone may have the good fortune of spending the rest of their lives with someone that they have a romantic love with and this can easily sound depressing.  Everyone has the power to find the Love within themselves no matter how deep.  Reading what I am writing I feel like I sound like a self help guru or some wavy person espousing an abstract theory.  I believe that Love is rooted in unconditional acceptance and selflessness.  Further thinking is required in order to truly understand it, but this is just the beginning.