What love truly is?

How long have I known you? It does'nt seem to matter.
An hour, a day, a month, a year? Have I ever really known you at all?
Yet somehow the thought that you might never be here again makes me feel so lost within so eternally unfulfilled. Is this what love is? To want for selfish reasonings? Do love and sacrifice go hand in hand I have always thought they would. Yet for all I try and all I meet no voice seems to ring true. Love seems something different something I might be incapable to do. Somehow to force it even if it does seem right, makes me feel malevolent, and makes me feel untrue. Love is not a tool, or even an emotion,it is something so much more yet I feel i will never know. Am I whining? Probably, although everyday I meet someone I feel could be the one. What bothers me so much is that compatibility seems so easy to one as broadly interested in life as myself. I am attracted to all ranges as long as they have a passion and go after it, this is the very thing i look for in a partner, that and laughter, someone that can remind me of that sweet hysteric laughter. How it haunts my very soul to think of never hearing it again.
Why just the other day i met someone that kindled interest almost immediately, but is it something to pursue? Is the entire process null? How often do we miss the ones that we should forever be with simply because of nerves? Or some other reason, is it not plausible that simply by showing up to early or to late, or simply not showing up at all could have such a resounding impact on our lives as to affect to the point of missed opportunity for love? Myself I simply think it is matter of opinion, easily i think i could be married within the year, happily most likely not, because who out there can readily understand the complexities that are me, then accept them for who and what they are and then love me for it. Is that even a possible scenario? Who is willing to love someone that has basically given up on monetary compensation for a greater goal in life, even if it is one of self-enlightenment and purpose. Yeah its not to difficult to take that person home for the night but to actually build something that is intimate, as well as something that will last throughout is that even possible? A friend once told me that this is not the time of marriage that it has become more of a joke then a idealistic reality of life, it is more of a burden from unplanned then unloved children who later turn into what they were spawned from. Yet is there perhaps hope for a hopeless romantic like myself? For all my cynicism I ideologically believe that love is possible that we can and will have an opportunity to meet the one we belong to, our ideal twin soul, but if we actually take the leap for that particular person when the opportunity comes is entirely up to us. How preacher-like I am, someone who barely if at all knows what love encompasses, yet for all my grandiose words and ideals, I will most likely be the one married to work, and entirely alone when my time comes to pass from this world, alone with the memories that ghost my mind and turn over and over wishing their was something more to go along with them, even though my life will be for the better of mankind, and especially animal kind/ this lifestyle is one I gladly and willingly choose, because humans are not the only ones that need champions and love comes in many different forms, love of morals, values, quality of life for our planet and its inhabitants is what I would rather love and champion.