Conversing with the Soul

No clichés will be sprouted…instead, this will be a serious attempt to understand love
However, I am not talking about the mother-daughter kind. But the ‘usual’ one which involves a guy and a girl ‘falling’ (and I quote teenagers here) for each other. Having seen the beginning and subsequent deterioration of endless adolescent relationships I think I am suitably qualified to dissect the popular concept. Young girls liking pop stars and young boys having ‘crushes’ on their teachers. Where do these feelings come from? In fact, currently more important is this tendency to like/love people and then forge a physical relationship with them. I’m not exactly a prude because I do think it’s acceptable for people to have different standards that define them and their relationships. However, I do find myself questioning what this need for physical attention stems from. The easiest available option would be to blame it on those cursed hormones which bear the burden of our lack of will in most cases. But there has to come a point when we accept responsibility for our own actions. Right?

More problematic perhaps is this feeling ‘love’. Is it infatuation disguised as caring for someone other than ourselves? For the longest time we have believed that we were, at some point, in love with someone. After the period of loving (?) is over (mostly because the relationship broke due to one or many factors) we are quick to classify it as something mistaken for love. Ofcourse we never bother to specify what this something else was or how the realization of its hollowness followed the demise of the relationship or sometimes the hope of one. Is this another twisted attempt to desperately cling on to the belief that ‘true love’ lasts forever? A line form the popular sitcom Ally McBeal comes to mind when a psychiatrist tells Ally that ‘maybe it won’t last forever, but who said that great loves always do’. All very nice to hear from the mouth of a trained person but Ally still goes on to break the pseudo-start of the relationship with the young boy in question. Because, honestly speaking, despite all advice/evidence we all would like to believe that true love lasts forever and is something worth waiting for. Please remember that at this time few, if any, of us know what true love really is! Is it what our parents claim to share? Or is it something you grow with and into with time and circumstances?

Are you able to see the maze of complications and unnecessary complexities which cloud our mind? At times we don’t face the truth because we want to believe something else. Sometimes we don’t accept the truth because we’ve been conditioned to believe otherwise and some other times we lack the wisdom to acknowledge something as true simply because we lack understanding or sadly grey matter even. No one said life would be easy but I never expected it to be so challenging. Well, actually I did but wanted it to be easier. So quite simply, if we desire things to be different we either change them to suit us or change our perspective (rather distort it ) so that we unconsciously fool ourselves into seeing things as we want them to be in order to be happy. The only problem attacking us then would be us waiting for a very long time in the hope of something ‘better’ when we have done nothing to either deserve it or no evidence exists to support it coming. Yes, we may choose to believe Paulo Coelho’s ‘The Alchemist’ which propounds that if you really want something then the whole universe will conspire to give it to you but most of us then conveniently forget that the boy traversed the desert (and back) in order to get his ultimate treasure while sacrificing everything (literally) in terms of material possessions and familial bonds (though admittedly he had none when the fable started). Also a reminder to the people suffering from memory-lapses, he also faced many disappointments and worked for over a year at the crystal sellers shop while also using his business acumen to increase sales and giving the owner bright ideas of expansion. So to all those people out there, who are waiting for the pearls of wisdom to be showered on them, if you truly believe in any philosophy its best you research it properly for those who gain have paid their price so to speak. In the context of love, from where this conversation started, this is not indicative of registering in a speed-dating service (though your means are best left to you) but rather the acknowledgment that the Universe/God/unknown Power does not bestow favours on those who don’t earn them. At the very least, do go out and live your life. Do some good, give! At the end of the day, lead a full happy life and be very aware that imparting goodness can never lead to any harm. If even then what you want does not come your way then put your philosophical inclination to good use and accept (in fact, believe) that it wasn’t something that you needed!!!
Good Luck and God Bless!
:)

If ever a shadow of doubt is cast
On your wandering mind
Know that nothing is out of your reach
And no mountain too hard to climb

It’s also true that
Abstract images can easily be seen
As well as the conjuring up
Of dreams that are deep

What matters most is not
Unrealistic faith
But the sense of unending belief
For which there exists no test,
Nor is there a need…

This may seem contradictory
But the limitations of poetry are many
All said and done
All you need really know is-

If ever a shadow of doubt is cast
On your wandering mind
Know that nothing is out of your reach
And no mountain too hard to climb

10/04/08