L.O.V.E

Love - Love - a subject of interest for countless writers and artists across human history. We got love poems, love letters, love songs, love stories and the list goes on. Greek philosophers sat down to discuss all the different kinds of love that we experience. And years later, this girl sitting in her home wrote a couple dozen poems on love, love letters and then articles on it. 

Navigating through life as is, I find myself seeking clarity for the connections that I make, the experiences that I have and the feelings that I have. There certainly is an element of wanting to label things and put them in boxes. There is also the influence of pop-culture and my perception of people’s stories. So here is a little piece of my mind on ‘love’: 

Love - First/Last 

Now, I believe that love is like a thread that continues throughout our lives. We live our lives, we fall in love and life as we know it changes. But what if we get separated from our love? 

I watched this show called ‘AfterLife’ which is about a man who loses his wife to cancer and his struggle of restarting his life post his loss. The show made me feel, it made me cry and it also made me think. It showed how when a family loses a loved one, not everyone gets the chance to process their grief. For example, in this show the main protagonist’s brother-in-law puts his personal grief on hold and focuses more on making the main lead feel better. I think when a family loses a parent, the elder siblings are usually not given the time to grieve their deceased parent. Sadly, Death entails a lot of paperwork and other worldly things which one cannot escape. People lose their parents, siblings, children and spouses. But only when one loses their spouse the pressure of moving on and dating someone new is evident. I find it a little strange but I also get it in a certain way. Now, coming to obsession with being the first romantic love. I’m sure I was the first love for someone and someone was the first love of my first love. I also had this thought that maybe someone else’s intensity and effort of love was greater than mine. But then I realised that no amount of love matters if it isn’t from someone whom you want it to from. One cannot possibly love objectively and that is beautifully sad because it is the reason for unrequited love. 
I leave you with the question - If unfortunately life takes away your love, do you think you will love again? 

Love - A choice. 

We meet different types of people in our lives. The ones whom we cannot wait to get away from them, the ones that we would want to see occasionally and then the ones that you’d want to have lifelong connections with. The initial excitement of finding someone who interests us is sweet. It is difficult to find such connections well into our adult lives. Now, I am not talking about romantic interests or finding someone attractive or maybe even a platonic friend. It's more like finding team members in a gaming console. Sometimes you play the same game and sometimes totally different ones. But the insights that you gain, the stories that you relieve, the introspection of beliefs that you have, makes this connection special. You want such people around, always. They make you grow, push you to take that flight. 
You love your people but you choose your love. They are the ones who sit beside you as you play the video game. They bring you water and snacks as you cross the levels. They choose you and you choose them. 


Love - Conditional ? Is love conditional ?
People say they love rain but only till it doesn't force them to change their plans. I used to love getting drenched in the rain on the terrace back home. But I wasn’t allowed to do so most of the time(something about catching a cold). Now, I have complete freedom to do so but I do not do it. I have grown to like the monsoon rains as I have no other alternative. I surrendered myself to these rains and now I find myself not resisting the rain. I enjoy the cold breeze. The sight of umbrellas all around makes me wonder if there will come a day when the city itself gets its own personalised huge umbrella. 
So maybe, when love comes our way we have to just surrender to the experience to feel it in an unconditional way, otherwise it’ll be conditional, no? 

Love - Pain, Universe etc 
Love and pain have fascinating connection. Also,I think pain is a great equaliser/leveller. It can distance us from ourselves while bringing us closer to others. Such is this shared experience that one may not have experienced love but one surely experienced love but one surely experiences pain in life. Love is ever expanding, something like the universe. If balance is the key and the universe is still expanding then maybe we will know the right balance when we expand ourselves, maybe. 

So, what does love mean to you?

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