Does love really last, and is it the same when you’re older? You know, like how it is in the beginning? This is what someone asked me last week and to tell truth, I had to think about it because the longest relationship I’ve been in is my current one of 11 years.

My answer? It depends. She looked at me like I was nuts. Can’t blame her really. It’s hard to explain love because everyone’s experience with love is individual. We do however go through the same stages, more or less. I’ll do my best to explain, and I’ll speak for women in my examples just to keep things simple.

Butterflies
When you first meet and look him up and down and get those ‘feelings’ you’re starting the lust phase. Butterflies are where you get those vibrations running through your skin and your brain can’t breathe. You can’t speak properly and even though you never stuttered before or ever

experienced a loss for words, it’s happening. For some reason, you can’t concentrate at work, can’t sleep, and you’re walking around like a zombie. All you’re thinking about is how amazing this man is and how you’d love to hang around him every minute of the day. This stage is normal and this happens at any age. It

doesn’t last forever for most of us, but some lucky people get to fall in love with the same person every day.

Lust
It’s like being on drugs — literally. Lust affects the dopamine in your brain exactly like it affects a crack addict – except you don’t lose weight and you don’t go

to jail for it. You and your hunky love interest are the only people in the universe and all you’re concerned about is the feel of skin on skin. You immerse yourselves in passionate bunny-rabbit love-making every hour of every day. All of your hormones and the majority of your brain cells take a vacation; There’s no

greater high in the world than the lust phase.
If you make it through the lust phase, you saunter into the next phase. By the way congratulations! You made it past superficiality and
entered a very important phase that could make or break your relationship.

Honeymooners
The honeymoon phase has a more sophisticated type of attraction which incorporates the sexy bits with the
desirable personal qualities. Your obsession isn’t as all-consuming as in the lust stage. You’ll notice they’re actually intelligent and that makes them even more
attractive. In fact, everything

about them seems to amp up since you added substance to lust.
Honeymooning can last up to a couple of years, however, it’s different for everyone. In my current relationship, the honeymoon period ended around the 6-month mark because we fast tracked. There’s a whole thing behind that, but we

made it through and entered what I thought was the final phase.

Honeymooners With a Twist
Moving in together during the honeymoon phase is what I call fast tracking. If you’re in a rush to nest, this is what you do. You’ll still be honeymooning but it will

throw you prematurely into the commitment stage when you might not be ready for it. Be prepared to endure some unexpected stress and the taking the shine out of your new adventure. It’s a tricky situation unless you’ve got your head on straight. The petals start falling off the rose when the bills start to roll in and you know you throw

you prematurely into the commitment stage when you might not be ready for it. Be prepared to endure some unexpected stress and the taking the shine out of your new adventure. It’s a tricky situation unless you’ve got your head on straight. The petals start falling off the rose when the bills start to roll in and you know you some of

the things that make romance can kind of fizzle. If you are aware that things change in the ‘getting to know you’ honeymooner phase, you can tackle the issues as they occur. IF you manage to survive that early commitment phase, and you’re still in love and living together congratulations! You must have an iron will!

Or he’s just that hot and sexy! And if you went through the whole
honeymoon stage without living together or running off to Vegas and getting married in the Elvis chapel,
congratulations! You
obviously have what it takes to weather the storm.

Commitment
What happens in this phase? It’s self-explanatory. This is where you start thinking about the future, about adopting a dog or having a child. You want to own your own place and settle down. You want him to put a ring on it because you’re in it to win it. Even if you didn’t fast track, you probably know

almost everything about your partner. At this point, you should already know where he stands on politics, where he stands on saving money for the future, and where both of you stand on family values. You’re a strong unit. Nothing should put a kink in the works, you’re rock solid. In this stage, you’ll be more open in your discussions about personal

concerns, and you speak openly and honestly about problems in the relationship, or with family, or work issues. You work together to help the house run more smoothly. You’re a team that depends on each other, and coexist but you’re still individuals. You accept that he might have to leave town or the country

because of his job. You’ve established a plan that will help you fill the void of his absence and he knows you’ll be there when he gets back. In this stage, trust is everything. But wait.
Something’s different. You realize that your amazing, passionate, bunny-rabbit love-making has severely dwindled. What happened?

Life happened and it happens to the best of us. Don’t dwell too much on the sexual aspect of the relationship because it could cause your relationship go south. Keep your eye on the prize and this will sort itself out. Speaking of sex, the hormonal lust phase isn’t in the picture as much as long ago, but it’s replaced by

love, honor, respect, and protection, along with teamwork. If you remember, you’ll add some unexpected sex during the new on
Saturday night. Don’t despair, you might squeeze in another session throughout the week. Some people actually dream of this stage in their relationship because it’s like you’re one

cohesive unit. But why isn’t sex as important now as in the beginning?Ah, this is where the next stage falls into place.

Caretaker
This stage happens to most people later in life. Your husband might fall ill, experience sexual dysfunction, or become sick

with Alzheimer’s. If this
happens it will really set you back sexually but the earlier phase prepared you for this because sexual frequency slowed down – a lot. You’ll be his caretaker and since you got this far into your
relationship, it’s not going to change how you feel about him. Despite the strength of your love, this is most certainly a

complicated time in your life. You might resent him for being sick, but in your heart you know it’s not his fault. You wish he was healthy again, but you know it’s not likely to happen quickly. You roll up your sleeves and become his nursemaid. So in the
caretaker stage, sex will be even less frequent, than the previous

stages – if not non-existent. It won’t matter though because both of you have learned what true love means. True love doesn’t have anything to do with sex. It is everything to do with being simpatico and being so close you’re one entity. When his heart beats, you feel it – it’s something you can’t describe.

Happily Ever After
It’s not that you didn’t know what love was before, it’s just that you didn’t know what the full scope of love was in the early stages of romance. Each stage is like taking courses at college. You’re preparing for your future with your man, much like a
college student is preparing for her career. Whether he stays healthy,

or if he falls ill, congratulations! You learned about unconditional love and it’s time for you to pay it
forward. You can tell people their love story will have a happy ending and until death do you part means something.

My Final Answer
You have to stick it out no matter

how much life throws at you, and no matter how many times you yell at him to put the toilet seat down. If you make it to the final stage, he’ll be there for you throughfinancial distress, the loss of your parents, the birth of your child, temporary
incompatibilities, and most importantly, he’ll be there to tell you that you look as

beautiful as the day he met you.

So yes.

Love does endure.