ON TRUE LOVE

ON TRUE LOVE

The old woman sat on the antique
rattan rocking chair. Her eyeglasses
were perched precariously on her nose as she concentrated on her sewing
chores. A gentle breeze swept the wisp
of whitish hair on her temples.

Beside her sat her teen-age
granddaughter. She was like a fresh
flower recently bloomed. Without warning
she suddenly blurted out, "Lola, why is true love so difficult to
find?"

The old woman with a kindly face stopped
sewing and touched her grand-daughter's head affectionately. After a moment, the young girl cuddled closer
resting her head on the old woman's lap.

"Listen and I will tell you
why," began the grandmother.

"Many centuries ago, when the
world
was young, true love existed every-where. It was available for the
asking. Because of this, men and women took true love for granted so
God decided
to keep true love." She stopped and
smiled as she gently stroke the young girl's soft tresses. "God asked a pair of angels to keep true
love.

First, they buried true love in the
ground. But man and woman easily dug it
out. Next, the angels took true love to
the highest mountain. But again man and
woman easily climbed to the top. Then
the angels submerged true love in the deepest sea. Man and woman swam to the bottom of the body
of water and with ease retrieved true love."

"So true love is easy to
find," commented the young girl. "For
man and woman will dig, climb and swim."

"Yes, but finally the angels kept
true
love in the hearts of man and woman. Since then people have had
difficulty searching for true love. For they look everywhere except in
the one
place that should keep it."




FALLING
IN LOVE

(From
the book “Letters to my Son” by Kent Nerburn)

It is a mystery why we fall in
love. It is a mystery how it
happens. It is a mystery when it
comes. It is a mystery why some love
grows and it is a mystery why some love fails. You can analyze this mystery and look for reasons and causes, but you
will never do anymore than take the life out of the experience. Just as life itself,
is more than the sum of the bones and muscles and electrical impulses in the
body, love is more than the sum of the interests and attractions and
commonalities that two people share. And
just as life itself is a gift that comes and goes in its own time, so too, the
coming of love must be taken as an unfathomable gift that cannot be questioned
in its ways.

Sometimes, hopefully at least once in
your life—the gift of love will come to you in full flower, and you will take hold
of it and celebrate it in all inexpress-ible beauty. This is the dream we all share. More often, it will come and take hold of
you, celebrate you for a brief moment, then move on.

When this
happens to young people, they too often try to grasp the love and hold it to
them, refusing to see that it is a gift that is freely given and a gift that
just as freely, moves away. When they
fall out of love, or the person they love feels the spirit of love leaving,
they try desperately to reclaim the love that is lost rather than accepting the
gift for what it was, then moving on.

They want answers where there are no
answers. They want to know what is wrong
in them that make the other person no longer love them, or they try to get
their lover to change, thinking that if some small things were different, love
would bloom again. They blame their
circumstances and say that if they go far away and start a new life together,
their love will grow. They try anything
to give meaning to what has happened. But there is no meaning beyond the love itself, and until they accept
its own mysterious ways; they live in a sea of misery.

You
need
to know this about love, and to accept it. You need to treat what it
brings you with kindness. If you find yourself in love with someone who
does
not love you, be gentle with yourself. There is nothing wrong with
you. Love just didn’t choose to rest in the other person’s heart.

If you find someone else in love with
you and you don’t love him, feel honored that love came and called at your
door, but gently refuse the gift you cannot return. Do not take advantage; do not cause
pain. How you deal with love is how you
deal with you, and all our hearts feel the same pains and joys, even if our
lives and ways are different.

If you fall in love with another, and he falls in
love with you, and then love chooses to leave, do not try to reclaim it or to
asses blame. Let it go. There is a reason and there is a
meaning. You will know in time.

Remember that you don’t choose
love. Love chooses you. All you can really do is accept it for all
its mystery when it comes into your life. Feel the way it fills you to overflowing, then reach out and give it
away. Give it
back
to the person who brought it alive in you. Give it to others who deem
it poor in spirit. Give it to the world around you in anyway you
can.

There is where many lovers go
wrong. Having been so long without love,
they
understand love only as a need. They see their hearts as empty places
that will be filled by love, and they begin to look at love as
something that flows to them
rather than from them. The first
blush of new love is filled to overflowing, but as their love cools, they
revert to seeing their love as a need. They cease to be someone who generates love and instead
become someone who seeks love. They forget that the secret of love is that it is a gift,
and that it can be made to grow only by giving it away.

Remember
this, and keep it to your heart. Love
has its own time, its own seasons, and its own reason for coming and
going. You cannot bribe it or coerce it,
or reason it into staying. You can only
embrace it when it arrives and give it away when it comes to you. But if it chooses to leave from your heart or
from the heart of your lover, there is nothing you can do and there is nothing
you should do. Love always has been and
always will be a mystery. Be glad that
it came to live for a moment in your life. IF YOU KEEP YOUR HEART OPEN IT WILL COME AGAIN