masterwordsmith-unplugged

It is such a lovely Friday evening tonight. I cannot help but feel a bit romantic, nostalgic, realistic or whatever you may call it for the night is so dark, quiet and the stars seem to call out my name.


Some enchanted evening.....Know the song? (Turn up the volume of your speakers.)



One can wait a whole lifetime for a moment like this.

The person whom you never thought you would ever meet in your life suddenly appears before you. His/her face, features, appearance - somehow there is something magical and magnetic about the whole packaging ;) and you know the magnetism is felt mutually. You hear his/her voice and your heart palpitates. Eyes almost popping out. Tears at the corner of your eyelids. Something within you is being moved.

He/She talks, thinks, jokes and behaves like the person you have been dreaming about all your life.

The strangest thing of all is that you never even realized before you had dreamed about him/her.

In fact, your whole past is like a long sleep and you only awakened when you saw him/her. And it would have been forgotten had there been no dream.

And the dream too might have been forgotten had there been no memory.

But suddenly, you open your eyes wide. The memory and recollection fills your mind and whole being.

The remembrance is there in you....filling your blood like an ocean gushing to shore to wash away everything but you stop short and take stock of the situation and the sea washes away that which is new, substantial, essential and with so much potential - REALITY.

How many of us truly fall in love? How many of us dream of love and then fall in love with the idea of being in love and chase our distorted vision of love while having no notion of what it means to love?

How many of us never find love because our ideals are too lofty and of no earthly use? How many of us are lucky enough to fall in love with the right person?

Worse still, how many of us fall in love with someone, lose that someone, and then spend a lifetime missing that someone and then lose sight of reality while living a life of regret and depriving himself/herself of bountiful blessings? And then to realize what a fool he/she had been to live for and to love someone who did not really love him/her at all?

In what world can two persons meet and fall in love? A variety of situations, time periods or whatever but the recipe is almost always the same. We can never determine the time or place or manner when we fall in love but we just do!

It is certainly much nicer to be in love than to be in a girdle, a higher tax bracket etc. But truth is, falling in love does not always end in a happy ever after tale. Enough Hollywood, Bollywood, Hong Kong or Korean movies have been made to illustrate this point. Hearts have been broken, lovers pining for each other till eternity, souls yearning and longing....regretting....the list is endless.

Volumes have been written about this complicated human emotion and yet nobody understands why they fall in love or why they love a particular person. Some may fight the emotion and live in denial or hide/mask their feelings or stay away and rob themselves of that beautiful warm feeling that makes us radiate from within. And yet, some lose themselves to that feeling of love much to their own detriment when they realize the sacrifices they made to love the person were just not worth it.

But alas, love vanquishes time. To two lovers, a moment can be eternity. Eternity can be the tick of a clock. Yet, in the face of challenges of all sorts, across the barrier of time and the ultimate destiny, love persists. Simply because the home of the beloved be he absent or present, is always in the mind and heart.

Absence does not diminish love; it intensifies it.

However, two lovers must make the effort to show affection and love. It cannot be
mutually gratifying if one makes the effort all the time to keep in touch while the other feigns indifference or busyness or a million and one excuses; the worse being - 'I don't have to tell you why - I love you and that should be good enough for you.' Both have to put in effort otherwise it will not work where one gives all the time, is there for the other who is there only to take, to use the other person as a crutch. Complacency and staleness would set in and the rot would begin. Love and effort in loving, tolerating, understanding and forgiving would save the day.

Where there is love, the touch of two hands will foil all dictionaries of any language in the world. Touch - such a beautiful medium to express of love.

Hands, eyes, soft words, monosyllabic words or even too many words and questions can make battlegrounds and workshops. Get my drift?

Communication - so vital for love. While guys do not like to say much as they assume a one-time declaration is enough, women like me may sound like a broken record when they ask "Do you love me?' or "Did you miss me?". Instead of lovey dovey words of affection, they would hear their gallant gentleman saying 'Why do I have to tell you so many times? Same question gets the same answer." or "Stupid questions get no answer."

Having said that, there are those who walk the extra mile to care for, to love, to nurture and to show affection to the one they love and that my dear friends, really matters. A man with a heart, a man with the ability to love and to give love. And the woman naturally reciprocates.

Yet, when two people love, really love each other, they can understand each other without so much of a gesture or a word. Then there is the beautiful feeling of saying the same thing at the same time because they understand each other's feelings,needs and moods. And then when that happens, both look at each other amazed at how they can be so in tune with each other. The best part is, they guard the other's feelings because they love their partner and want the best for them in every respect.

Companionship -couples can be separate entities and yet having that sense of sharing that can come when two lives move in synchrony with the other...having merged in so many other ways. Unspoken words exist because thoughts can be heard by our loved ones. Words become secondary while the eyes and hands do the talking. If that fails, then they will be two separate entities revolving in separate orbits.

Love gives privacy and yet freedom with a relaxed sense of personal trust so we do not have to clutch to each other and stifle each other to death. We just have to respect ourselves enough to respect our partner's individuality.

Privacy and yet freedom - a relaxed touch of personal trust. Honesty - another important trait to be able to love successfully. We cannot say things that please others for we should speak to express ourselves, not to please others. But do we love enough to tell the truth or are our feelings camouflaged to protect ourselves or the other person?

Sometimes one can be separated from the one he/she loves. The yearning is there felt deeply by both. Communion is gone and yet because they both love, it seems as though they are still close together, weathering each day with love that is not remote or far away.

I could go on and on philosophising about the foibles or follies of love but i deeply believe that when we truly love a person, it means we communicate to that person that we are all for him/her....that we will never fail him/her or let him/her down when he/she needs us. What we can do is to be always standing by with all the necessary encouragement and not condemnation.

Understanding is so vital and the alarming fact is that to understand another human must be the most difficult of human aspirations. Sadly, some of us may not even understand ourselves and if we cannot - then how can we expect others to understand us or even to love us? They may not understand their partner who in turn may not understand them - the worst case scenario which would witness all kinds of conflict and the result of which would be too painful to both parties.

Whoever you are, wherever you may be in whatever situation, I truly hope that despite the many storms of life, one day , you will reach the shore of love and know that when you fall in love, truly fall in love, it will be with the right person and that it will be forever and that you will love, cherish and respect that person....all the way...no matter what happens.

"...Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (I Corinthians 13:13)

Some enchanted evening.....one of those magical evenings when I feel all sentimental and romantic....How about you? How do you feel about love? Do leave a comment for I would love to hear your views or experiences. Thanks.....Have a wonderful evening with your loved one...