I guess it is only right for me to usher in the new year with one of the most important and personal learnings of this year:
Love, for the most part, is untamed. Instead, it tames you.
"I am not tamed."
"If you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world ..."
"There is a flower ... I think that she has tamed me ..."
"Please --- tame me! ... One only understands the things that one tames."
"What must I do to tame you?"
"You must be very patient."
Love has been so commercialized and advertised, that it has been romanticized to death. Yet few people these days are able to truly grasp what it is and what it stands for.
So ... how does one tame something one does not understand?
This year was riddled with pockets of bright and colorful showers of love, that I am most grateful for ... and forever will be. Because of those who have so generously pampered me with love, I was able to grasp the important first step:
To know, understand and love myself.
"This flower is a very complex creature."
I have had to strip myself of everything (biases, hurts and trophies) and get back to basics, because ...
"Only the children know what they are looking for."
"He did not know then, but his leaving was the first step on his journey back to her."
I had been so bent on giving love, that I forgot the importance of allowing myself to be loved and to love myself --- so that I have love to give in return.
"I was carried beyond myself by the inspiring force of urgent necessity."
Leafing through the pages of
"The Little Prince" once again gave me insight to who I am, so that I am ready to believe ...
"I am very fond of sunsets ...
You know -- one loves the sunset, when one is so sad ..."
I had to recognize that I wasn't an island ... nor superwoman ...
"Flowers are weak creatures. They are naive. They reassure themselves as best they can. They believe that their thorns are terrible weapons ..."
There will be moments when everything becomes overwhelming and all I can do is sit down and cry. There will be times when, no matter how high the walls are, someone can still scale it ... and hearts get broken.
"It is such a secret place, the land of tears."
Despite the new norms and what society dictates, it is okay to hold fast to principles and values.
"I am not a weed," the flower replied. sweetly.
Even though nobody appreciates it fully ...
"But I did not know how to take pleasure in all her grace. This tale of claws, which disturbed me so much, should only have filled my heart with tenderness and pity."
... nor understands completely.
"Oh! I understand you very well, But why do you always speak in riddles?"
There are times, when I, too, am so consumed by my standards that I fail to see what is right in front of me ...
"The fact is that I did not know how to understand anything! I ought to have judged by deeds and not by words. She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her ... I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little strategems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her ..."
... and fail to show (or, perhaps, don't know how to) the secrets that lay hidden in the deepest sections of my heart.
"Of course I love you," the flower said to him. "It is my fault that you have not known it all the while. That is of no importance. But you --- you have been just as foolish as I. Try to be happy ... "
I have a huge tendency to push away that which I want to hold closest.
"Don't linger like this. You have decided to go away. Now go!"
"She was such a proud flower ..."
Yes, I am.
So what have I learned ...
Sometimes:
- Love can hurt: "Ah ... I shall cry."
- Because it can be foolish: "It is your own fault. I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you."
But, sometimes:
- Love takes time: "It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."
- Love is not superficial: "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
- Love sees through a special looking glass: "Go look again at the roses. You will understand that yours is unique in all the world."
- Love is never fleeting. It is beyond just now: "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose ..."
- Love takes a lot of work. But ... : "This water was indeed a different thing from ordinary nourishment. Its sweetness was born of the walk under the stars, the song of the pulley, the effort of my arms. It was good for the heart, like a present."
- Love is faithful: "You are beautiful, but you are empty. One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you - the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses ... because she is my rose."
Here's to 2016 ... to believing, being open ... and taking giant leaps of faith!
