This morning, I woke up to the most beautiful version of Ed
Sheeran's - Thinking out Loud. It lasted all of four minutes and thirty three
seconds and despite being a very sleepy me, the entire length of the song,
"my eyes smiled from my cheek". I am in love with this song. I
practically breathe music. So, it's quite natural for me to be in love with
certain songs from time to time. And I always seem to find something new to be
addicted to, to replace the older one. But this one has managed to stick. For
months. Every day. Multiple times a day. On repeat. Putting me to sleep every
night, waking me up gently every morning, keeping me company on long solo
drives into sunsets. Makes me wonder - “darling, will I be loving you 'til
we're 70?"
Love is a beautiful, beautiful thing. In any capacity and
any form, I believe there isn't a feeling more unadulterated than love. The
human mind confuses it with a myriad of other emotions & feelings sometimes
and then love doesn't seem like what it should be - pure & unconditional,
honest & forgiving, passionate & all encompassing.
You may wonder if love is after all such a thing of beauty,
more often than not why do we find ourselves all hurt & broken afterwards? Or
worse, sometimes in it? There is a simple one word answer to that -
expectations. Over the years, society has conditioned our mind to believe
certain things and expect certain things with different kinds of love. We love
our children today, coz they are "our" children, we are
"supposed" to love them but sadly, also because we expect them to
take care of us when we are weak & old. We love our parents coz we owe our
life on earth to them but also because we know no matter how badly we screw up
& how badly we treat them, they'll always be on our side, even when that is
the wrong side. We love our husbands & wives because they are our safety
net coz no matter how dull or boring we become tomorrow they'll still stick
around. We love our brothers, wishfully thinking even years later when they are
married & smitten by their gorgeous wives, we will still be the most important
woman in their lives. We love our lovers coz they love us back, coz they make
us feel good about ourselves, and most importantly coz they bring us hope of a
dream like tomorrow. I am not undermining any of these relationships or
emotions, but until you have allowed yourself to fall recklessly, madly,
unconditionally in love you have not experienced this higher form of love that
I am talking about here. Love that makes your eyes light up like a million
stars, love that makes your heart swell. They talk about "how people fall
in love in mysterious ways, Maybe just the touch of a hand" but have you
ever been in love that touches you deep inside without ever touching? Love that
makes you rich, so rich without ever giving? Love that makes "your mouth
still remember the taste of the love" without ever kissing? That kind of
love is rare, almost an oddity. But it is truly worth experiencing, I can tell
you that. When you will be able to love without naming, without expectations
and without holding back, you will experience life in a whole new way. Find a
person or a thing you can love like that. But like I said, feeling this love is
rare. Finding it, even more rare. If you ever find it, hold it with both hands
and make sure it doesn't slip away. I hope you find it at least once in your
lifetime. If you are lucky, may be you will find this kind of love more than
once. And when all else fails, get a
dog.
