My True Love

There were times I caught my self frozen in the middle of nothingness. Over my room's ceiling, I would look right through the moonlit night of the other side and found nothing but a glossy light. There are things about life that plunged me into an abyss of conscious confusions. Well, that's about the intriguing wonder of the inevitable love...Once, I wandered through my book shelf and found an almost ruined book, not so old but physically devastated due to its past journey, unexpectedly, succumbed by this selection written by Amparo Santamaria-Lardizabal, again I am inspired by the thought that I too is extremely in love.

In the life of every young person, there comes a time when he thinks he is in love.

Am I in love? Is this the love that poets rave about, the love that lasts for ever and ever? That's a question that many a girl ask herself. It is the question that she must answer before making a decision that will affect the rest of her life.

Often admiration and infatuation is mistaken for love. One can also love a person he does not necessarily admire. Physical attraction may also be mistaken for love. This is generally transient, for abiding love is more than physical. Physical attraction usually fades with familiarity.

In the teens, there comes a time when a girl is ready to fall in love. At this stage, any presentable young man will do, and the girl is apt to make the mistake of thinking she is in love with the man when she may just be in love with the idea of love.

Childhood love, first love, is seldom the real love of a lifetime. Hence, it is called puppy love. One outgrows it with the years. Just as one's ideas, concepts attitudes and ideals change and develop till one reaches maturity, so do the goals of one's affections.

How then one can tell if she or he is in love?

Sometimes love develops gradually, hits her between the eyes, as it were, and she finds herself in love with a fellow she has known all her life or it may be a stranger from another land.

What are the signs of true love?

How can one tell that it is not just a passing fancy?

First, love stands the test of time. It endures through good times and bad.

Understanding, patience, and tolerance also have important parts to play in making love endure. If you really love a man it will not be difficult to show him understanding, patience and tolerance.

The spirit of giving is also a sign of love. True love is generous. It desires to give and give. It desires to shower the object of its affections with gifts, with adoration, with everything it has. The impulse to give should not always be given expression, however, because too much of everything is not good. True love is unselfish.

True love is kind. It not only tries not to inflict pain, but it also tries to shield the loved one from all hurt, from all sorrow, from all suffering. If love is cruel at times, it is not intentionally so. A man truly in love on the other hand, is a knight in shining armor, ready not only to protect his lady love from all harm, but to fight for her if necessary.

True love is sharing - sharing of responsibilities as well as blessings, sharing of fortune as well as misfortune. Who is the person you want to share your joys and success with? Is he the same one you confide your troubles and disappointments to? If a man is around only for the good times and disappears the minute adversity looms, beware of him.

True love is ennobling. It arouses the best in a person. It elevates him to a high plane. It makes him want to be good, not only because he wants to appear well in the loved being's eyes, but also because true can tell whether what she feels for him is love or something else masquerading in the name of love.

True love understands. It makes allowance for faults as well as virtues, for weaknesses as well as strength. Understanding also brings patience and tolerance towards everyone, not only towards the cherished person. True love brings about an improvement in character and disposition.

Self-sacrifice is another sign of true love. Self-effacement is but a form of self-sacrifice and this too is actuated by love, as illustrated by the girl in the poem who regretted having spelled the word correctly because she hated to surpass the boy she cared for. A person truly in love finds joy and satisfaction in sacrificing himself for the good and welfare of the beloved.

Missing the other party and wanting to be in his company are other signs of love. A girl or a boy may enjoy the company of friends, but it is the person he or she misses and cannot get along without that person each is in love with.

True love brings happiness. There's a saying that the course of true love never runs smoothly, but all in all, weighing everything in the balance, a person finds that in the end true love sweeps away all barriers to happiness and triumphs.

True loves has many signs, but why bother about the sign posts at all? One will know when it comes. No other emotion is like it. It's such a glorious feeling. You want to run, shout and jump. You feel like singing and dancing. Laughter is ever ready to bubble from your lips and any little thing is enough to make you burst into song. Your feet may be on the ground, but your head is up in the clouds. Every weed is a flower and it's such a lovely world. The days and the nights and the hours? They do not mean a thing to you. Rather, you reckon time in terms of meetings - from the time you last saw each other to the time you will meet again. You feel young and alive and vibrant. You feel that you can conquer the world.