Once, in my old apartment, I awoke to see a flower arrangement lining my neighbor's window-sill. I was fascinated by the peculiarly-placed arrangement.One evening towards the midnight hour I discovered the source of the flowers. After an hour of desperate pleadings with my neighbor while she leaned out the window and he beckoned from the courtyard lawn below, a handsomely-lanky man lamented of love and pleaded for forgiveness. The woman seemed momentarily flattered, but quickly lost interest and slammed the window shut. After shouting some vulgarities in a foreign language, the man left the courtyard with head hung low. An hour or so later, I found him placing flowers on the sill followed by some final pleas of love and adoration.
This went on for several months and one night with the courage of a few too many glasses of wine and a friend by my side, I yelled down to the man whose accent-heavy words echoed through the courtyard and asked him: "Don't you understand? She's just not that into you!"He did not seem shocked by my presence and swiftly and earnestly replied: "But I love her."
Though I giggled at the oddness of this human contact, I also felt sad for the man who was so tortured. God knows I've been there myself. It's always so clear when you are the outsider looking in and saying: "move on already!", but the mind can be so tormented with regret and longing.
While your current story may not be as charmingly cinematic as that evening felt to me or as dramatic as it felt to the mystery man, it might contain particles of a quest to re-capture what once was. "Once was" can describe many things - some as obvious as an old flame, others as abstract as feelings of youthfulness or adventure.
Let us boldly make this year about loving what IS instead of what was - with forward movement that catapults us into new experiences and fresh perspectives - resulting in the courage to embrace each moment as if it were the best.
Avanti!
