Life is too short for us to keep important words, for example, ‘I love you’, locked in our hearts.
But do not always expect to hear the same words back. We love because we need to love. Otherwise, love loses all meaning and the sun ceases to shine.
A rose dreams of enjoying the company of bees, but none appears. The sun asks:
‘Aren’t you tired of waiting?’
‘Yes,’ answers the rose, ‘but if I close my petals, I will wither and die.’
And yet, even when Love does not appear, we remain open to its presence. Sometimes, when loneliness seems about to crush everything, the only way to resist is to keep on loving.
Our one true choice is to plunge into the mystery of that uncontrollable force.
Then we discover, when we go home, that someone was there waiting for us, looking for the same thing we were looking for and experiencing the same anxieties and longings.
Because love is like the water that is transformed into a cloud: it’s lifted up into the heavens, where it can see everything from a distance, aware that, one day, it will have to return to earth.
Because love is like the cloud that is transformed into rain: it is drawn down to the earth, where it waters the fields.
Love is only a word, until we decide to let it possess us with all its force.
Love is only a word, until someone arrives to give it meaning.
Don’t give up. Remember, it’s always the last key on the keyring that opens the door.
taken from THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN ACCRA
Paulo Coelho
