The word “love” is perhaps the most abutilised word in the modern English language. The “ancient” Greeks, we are told, at least made an effort to give the word some nuance, with four loves Agape, Eros, Storge and Philia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_words_for_love. My wife, rather astutely, also added two more very distinct types of love… Real and Cupboard.
My view is that to love someone is to engage in an active relationship with that someone and agreeing that the relationship will be based on an acceptance of the someone as they are now, without attaching to any desire to change, mould, shape, reform them.