....the lovely guilty

...in a life where most of our 'energies' are expended either on regret prevention  a.k.a "pre-action" worry or regret redemption a.k.a "post-action" guilt....where does love figure in it...

Love or rather "ideal" love should come from and remain in that purest, cleanest 'part' within you. And by definition, it is a place far from the reach of...guilt or...self doubt!!

I'd like to think or rather believe, it is a combination of respect, adoration and unconditional acceptance. All of this would perhaps result in placing that object/recipient of such love in a state where they become "you cant hurt me ever because I believe that 'skill' of yours is 'blunted' by my unrelenting fondness for you"

And in those very rare occasions that it becomes mutual between two individuals, those occasions are 'blessed' and the individuals themselves ought to be considered truly truly 'blessed'...

Of course, unconditional acceptance often in practice is simply "coined" unconditional after a thorough analysis and introspection to confirm without doubt whether all "unacceptable" conditions are indeed absent..! :)

...the problem with perception

The problem with perception is that it is greatly affected by the inherent inefficiency of the respective sense in question and therefore ultimately not reliable in its entirety!!

It is at that point and from then on, you rely only on intuition....