Love and Soul

Note: I'd like to thank my tireless companion in the search for our individual elusive dreams, for polishing my perceptions about love, and further helping me draw out my best; for it is true, as this saying may put it, "what we all most need is the one who can liberate within us that lifelong prisoner whose doom it is to remain captive until another sets it free - out best. For we can never set our best free by our own hands; that must always be done by another." In this day of the hearts, let me say this, Thank you Czarina Jhannette Ventura. ;-)

“Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.”

- Mother Teresa

Humans are bound by stories that reach far beyond time written down in history, older even than the age of the mythic gods. Stories reaching the abyss that constitute the understanding of something that which cannot be measured, that which words can put in futility when tried to be translated. It’s the basic element of humanity that ruffles the dried leaves, makes the petals of roses fall from the stemless sky, speeds up the spring of Sakura, all against the laws of nature. They are bound by the basic element that brings the destruction of humankind, and quite strangely, their own creation: Love.

Love is a timeless classic. It can explore the four corners of the world, and extend its hands easily without passing through the barriers isolating cultures and society. It seeps seamlessly through Millenia, eternally imbuing its principles to the unequally divided continents.

Love is a universal language. It’s far better understood by way of an act true to its spirit. An act that can be seen by the blind, heard by the deaf, and spoken by the mute. It is a language that, ironically, or perhaps quite rightly, most able men fail to profess.

In this day of the Hearts, the volition that had brought us in this world is not padded in a single color the commercial world has been continually painting it. The hues that it has been trully imbuing are far deeper that what our mind can perceive.

Puppy Love

We could ask one about puppy love and be answered with a giggle and excited stuttering. The common tell-tale signs for us Pinoys having puppy love are the prominent acnes on our nose, extreme introversion toward the the subject of our affection, increasing inattentiveness to reality, and eyebags (as product of sleeplessness and dissociation from reality) among others. It could either exist in our elementary or high school years depending on how you might actually see it today as an adult. Such phenomenon (after adults around you notice it) will be inevitably followed by teasing which seems to go on forever. No matter how you deny it, the remotest part of your mind, the alter-ego you created out of constant dissociation, cajoles you, taunting you in the garden you made with insert-your-puppy-love’s-name-here.

Our memories of such immature moments are a great stop to ponder if we are trying to look at ourselves now. Note that the word immature is not a phase that we should be ashamed of, because it has become a part of your wonderful, youthful stories.

First Love

The first heartbreak! If you can still remember the name of your first love, then feel free to raise your hand, and wave to rhythm of Wild and Gardner’s classic, First Love Never Dies. Having a friend beside you, crying silently yet wishing it’s loud enough for the world to hear is quite a sight, because you both know that it's not really the world that your friend has been wishing for, but the heart-breaker to hear her cry. But since you also treaded on this stage, you are giving most of your imperative suggestions and violent commands to your friend, only to find out that your friend is still crying the next day.

If it’s also first love, you’ll know that it’s authentic, when (in anyone’s judment) it took you two long years to move on, and just laugh yourself out everytime the 'stupid' memories come out of your reverie.

Yes, stupid! But it’s totally refreshing to realize that you’d managed to turn yourself into a moron by the pull of such strong feelings. Yes, It made you stronger! It made you feel skeptical about the world and your old perceptions of it; from the nice words of someone to simple gesture a friend may give you. You don’t misinterpret no more.

These could be the rants of most people, but there are those who are lucky having found their first love, and with hardwork (believe me, it is always hardwork), to make it the greatest and the last.

True Love

The form of which can not be easily defined, nor easily be constructed. It cannot be thrust into a cell and be dismissed as romantic. It cannot simply be a daily dose of chocolates, and of flowers, and everything nice. It’s the power that moves us all.

Love cannot be about sacrifice without fighting for whatever worth it may take from you. Love is not yielding on something so a force can proceed. For one may say it’s true love, but failing miserably in showing it.

Love is not all about love for another human being. For the modern heroes, it’s about, using yourself as a faculty to break from tyranny of all forms. For activists, it’s about equality and justice. For a feminist, it’s about getting the same rights as men. For free thinkers, it’s about a continous change and destroying convention. For a mother, it’s about her child’s life before her own. For a father, it’s about forgetting his future so that his child may have a brighter one.

For a dreamer such as you, it’s about going on about your daily life, knowing that what you are doing will lead you someday to that exact moment you have been tirelessly working for.

For this day, it couldn’t be just about roses and hearts. That stereotipical definition of love the whole world has been hammering into your consciousness is incomplete -- almost hollow. Rather, if ever a day would be dedicated to the celebration of love, it should be for everyone longing for something that is far from ones reach; a wish, or perhaps a dream.

Soul

And for love to endure, one has to have a great soul. It is the piece that anchors your love to wherever it deems itself fated. Your love is like a kite soaring in the sky planted on a solid ground. Keep it still, keep it strong. And when every single love is anchored to a soul, there’ll be no day that we’d be celebrating love, because love will be, as the rest of the world would put it, in the air you breathe, every waking day.