Saturday, February 19, 2011

LOOKING FOR LOVE

I have a good friend who is looking for love. She's dating all the time, meeting people both in the real world and online. Fast and furious. Lickety-split, so to speak.

She says, "I'm going to find it, too."

Mmm. OK. Maybe. We'll see.

Frankly, I don't think it works that way. I'm not quite sure why. It seems to me that love is all around you, if you open yourself up to it, and see it and appreciate it and have the courage to reach out for it.

This frantic search for love reminds me of a cartoon cover on The New Yorker magazine. Hundreds of people, men and women, are jammed into a subway car, and each person is reading the same book on finding love.

It's funny, and I laughed out loud, but the message is clear. Everyone wants the same thing. Romance. Love. Connections. But most people are too busy thinking about love and trying to find it to actually see it, right there, all around.

Somehow, we always think that our true love is going to be the next person, the one we haven't met yet, around the corner or around the world.

Then we meet the "perfect" person and they turn out to be not so perfect after all. Then we rush on to the next one, and the next. Seeking, seeking, and never finding.

I can't really put this into words, but somehow I think the problem is in the seeking. I used to do that, always looking and never finding.

Now I've stopped looking, and I feel like there is so much love in my life. I can't explain it. But I'm a lot happier now.


Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle

2 comments:

Sharine said...

Roger, yes, yes, yes!

I say, make yourself happy with your own life. Fill it with activities and endeavors that make you feel truly alive, challenged, exhausted and exhilarated.

And when you stop and look out at the world, all kinds of wonderful people, places, things and experiences come out to match your level of LIVING!

Roger R. Angle said...

Yes, I agree. Wholeheartedly.