Thinking "In" Loud

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.