Liz recently wrote beautifully about gifts and being in love. She's right in so many ways.
"I was trying to explain to someone recently the difference between the intoxication of infatuation, and the happiness of a long-time love. It’s hard to explain, really. Infatuation has energy and excitement. It’s a high. It’s like the first drop on the roller coaster—exhilarating and terrifying all at once. Long-term love is sweet and slow and solid and secure. It’s knowing that someone knows you—knows all about you, knows what you like, knows how you think. Infatuation takes your breath away; love takes your fears away." [emphasis mine]
-- Liz Lawley, my husband rocks (12th anniversary edition)
Speaking of love, Velveteen Rabbi, blogged about a persian poet named Hafez who writes some fabulous poems about god and by extension love.
The Subject Tonight is Love Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz by D. Ladinsky "Know The true nature of your Beloved. In His loving eyes your every thought, Word and movement is always-- Always Beautiful." - Hafiz
Infatuation, I think, is all about the person who is feeling it--the buzz, the rush, the excitement, like Liz says. And the infatuated do everything they can to prolong that delicious sensation. But love is all about the other, the object of the infatuation. When infatuation matures into love, one's perspective reverses--what the lover feels himself is of less consequence, because he is focused on how he can make the world of the loved safer, more secure, and more satisfying. And that changes everything.