Here is a quote from an unknown source and I think most of here would agree with this:

"Real Love
Many people think that real love is just a feeling. You know, the “I’m in love and it’s wonderful” feeling. It’s important to understand that it’s relatively easy to get this feeling while dating.

If real love is just a feeling, feelings come and go. But real love doesn't come and go. Love is patient and kind. Love isn’t jealous, rude, selfish, or easily angered. Love keeps no record o...f wrongs. Love finds no joy in evil, but rejoices in what is right. Love is supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. Love never fails.

Real love is much more than the feeling of being “in love”, it’s a lifelong commitment. When you say that you love your significant other, you are saying that you are committed to loving them for the rest of your life - for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, from this day forward, until death do you part. Real love never fails. (Please keep in mind that you can have real love for your significant other even though you don’t have the feeling of being “in love” all the time - even happily married couples report that they sometimes don’t have the feeling of being “in love.)

Think of it this way, if a person has real love for another person, it’s like the sun, it’s always there no matter what (remember that even when it’s night, the sun is still there, it’s just shining on the other side of the earth - and when it’s cloudy outside the sun is also still there, it’s just behind the clouds). The feeling of being “in love” is like sunshine - even though we would like it to be sunny everyday, the truth is that sunshine comes and goes. I’m hoping that this explanation is helping you to see that it’s possible for a person to have real love for another person and not feel “in love” with that person at a particular moment.

So when you hear someone say, “I don't love him or her anymore” - take it for what it really is. It’s someone saying that they have lost the feeling of being “in love”, that they don’t know how or they are not willing to make the effort required to get back the feeling of being “in love”, and that they never had real love for that person to begin with because real love never fails.

Real love is what keeps people together for 50 or 60 years."

It seems to me that our leaving spouses are hung up on the feeling of being in love. If we want them back, we are going to somehow find a way to be more "in love"able


Me-45
W-44
T-7 years
M-3 years (4th anniversary July 13, but we're separated)
Kids from previous relationships (s14 d16 mine, s23, s24 hers)