Cupid's post !!!

Hello again friends......after a longish gap! So how was the valentine's day this year? Was it "love"-ly or lonely? Never mind even if it was the latter......it's just another day of the year, isn't it? And since when does Love need a day to be celebrated anyway? I mean a reserved calendar day is fine and convenient to remember, but who cares? We can celebrate it every day of our life! Speaking of which, don't we actually live "love" (almost like breathing air) every moment?

For all of us "I don't believe in love"s out here(I felt so a long time back too), there is that one person or thing that all of us love....somewhere tucked away in the bottom of our hearts...the raison de vivre (reason to live) that keeps us going...taking everything life throws at us. Although I am no "love guru", it may be realized as subtle inexpressible feelings of affection, simple comfort, calm joy, poignant possession, deep trust and shared dreams....for any living being or, in fact, an inanimate thing. However, whatever love is for or towards, I feel it is actually the realization of such a feeling/relationship rather than its expression in cards/gifts/flowers/kisses that makes love "LOVE"! Don't you think it is important to understand the subtle difference between the two?

Can we make our complex relationships and shared priorities a bit easier if we start putting more effort into realizing and simplifying "Love" on a personal level?...... rather than being driven by a shady feeling we do not wholly understand, yet are intent on following it to where it leads, on the way trying to force it into expression (even if it is to one's own self)! For example, if you ask me, I believe the Muasamman Burj (Shah Jahan's prison balcony in Agra fort,through which he saw his Taj) is a greater symbol of love than the Taj Mahal itself.......why? Very simple, because the former is an example of the very feeling of love at a very personal level, while the latter was only an expression of that feeling! It is true that history (like most of us in our daily lives) mostly recounts love in its forms or expressions through the times (more exciting and dramatic that way), instead of the very basic feeling/relationship/understanding that defines "love" in itself! It's like saying "i fell in love with x the moment I saw her/him/it"...almost verbitizing an actually gradual feeling into a single moment of occurence, and that is where we make the first mistake of complicating such a sacred and beautiful feeling! That person will invariably realize much later on, that the feeling that occured from that day onwards, after seeing "someone/something special", indeed crystallized much later into what is actually "love"!

I will leave you, friends, with the above thoughts......so, maybe "love" just "happens" to our emotional senses; or maybe it gradually seeps through our senses, mind and soul for a long long time, without even our realizing it, till it seems it was always there to start with! To me, love is a continuous feeling/process of self understanding, realization and enrichment (thanks to my family and Puku)...there is something inherently selfless about it - independant of reciprocity from the person/object of love...it's about becoming stronger and better human beings...and I am sure all of us have something/someone to live for...and after sometime it really doesn't matter even if that someone/something does not share our feeling...because "love" really doesn't need the "me too" component, does it?...and if we look around us, we just might realize that we weren't searching hard enough all this while for the real reasons to live! So, let's keep our relationships simple...by asking ourselves tough questions...answering ourselves honestly...searching for true happiness in our feelings for someone/something ...because at the end of the day, what matters is whether we are happy.......finding reasons to smile...and spreading "happyness" among those that really love us!

"If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time." - Edith Newbold Jones Wharton

"Just because you love someone doesn't mean you have to be involved with them. Love is not a bandage to cover wounds." - Hugh Elliott

"Real love is a permanently self-enlarging experience." - M. Scott Peck