"Real love is much more than a physical meeting of persons or minds. If there is the slightest doubt in your head about a man or woman being the one for you, then forget it; they're not for you! When the right one comes along, all doubt will disappear and you'll be so certain that you'll toss your head back and laugh at the sky.
I have loved many times and have been in love as often as I've been out of love. I have been asked many times, 'But how will I know when I'm in love... when I've found the right one for me?' I always reply, 'You'll know, believe me they'll be no mistaking it. Until you're in love, nothing in the world makes sense and when your in love, you just don't care!'
To me, living involves much more than breathing in and out. That's not enough; it never can be. Unless you always leave your heart open to the possibility of giving and receiving love, you will not experience love first hand. I have always found that living without love is meaningless and if life be my race, than being in love has become the ultimate prize for the running of it. Just as you have to fully immerse yourself in life in order to feel the fullness of what life has to offer, so it is also with love. You have to be in it to win it!
When you believe you are in love, apply the following satisfaction test. Look into their eyes and see if what you offer is reflected in return. Also, be aware that when you ask yourself, 'Am I ready to fall in love?' to know that the mere posing of the question tells you that you are.
It is natural to be wary, when previously you have loved and lost and still bear the scars. In such circumstances, if it is magic you require, it is wise to believe that love is the only trick that the heart can pull from the hat and that new love possesses the power to heal the scars of old.
I recall a time in Toronto, Canada when at the age of twenty one, I fell in love with a beautiful young woman called Jenny. Because it is a hallmark of love to try to impress the one you fancy, particularly in the early days of the romance, I pulled out all the stops to impress upon Jenny that I was a serious suitor. I wanted our first date to be so special that she would never forget it, even if we never had a second date.
If there is something I have always found niggling, it is other strangers trying to listen in on the conversation being held at the adjacent restaurant table, or showing greedy eyes when they stare to see what you are eating while they await the serving of their meal. I'd no intention of risking that during my first romantic date with Jenny. So I used a month's wages at the time to provide me and Jenny with our own magic corner.
On the evening in question (a Tuesday night which is usually much quieter in restaurants), me and Jenny arrived at a quaint little Italian restaurant in uptown Toronto. It would be ideal to be able to provide you with a beautiful Italian name for the restaurant, but I just cannot remember, as it was the person I was with and not the place I was at which preoccupied me.
We arrived at the restaurant as arranged at the appointed time of 7.00 pm and were shown to a table in the centre of the room by the restaurant owner. To be precise, it was the only table in the restaurant which was laid and ready to serve from. All the other tables had been re-positioned around the edge of the room. The table had a lovely vase of red roses at its centre and the restaurant lights were dimmed with romantic Italian music playing in the background. The evening was a huge success and for the cost of a $1000 outlay, plus food and other incidentals, I'd managed to book the entire restaurant between 7.00 and 11.00 pm in order to make my romantic gesture complete. The initial cost of $1000 compensation for its exclusive use on a quiet Tuesday evening, was in excess of the profit the restaurant would have made anyway, had it opened as usual.
It has always astounded me what cost, effort and attention to detail one will go to in order to impress the love of their life in the early bud of courtship, but once married for a few years and the romantic gloss has started to fade, buying your woman the odd bunch of flowers, box of chocolates or taking her out for the occasional meal seems to be more than par for the marital course.
Some cynics say that love is blind, but if that be true, I'd have to agree that marriage is a real eye opener. A good exercise that all married people could well benefit from when love becomes jaded, is to recall what it was that initially made you fall in love with the man/woman of your dreams in the first place, because that is usually what you have probably lost sight of during the years in between.
When you first met your sweetheart, you probably recognised yourself in them and them in you. Their instant attraction was that they represented a cure for your circumstances, providing you with the perfect remedy for love sickness. Everything about each other naturally bounced back and forth, and like romantic tennis players, they returned the love you gave them, only with greater force and more perfect precision; always hitting the spot. When you looked at them, your eyes no longer looked upon the past, but strayed towards a future together, a brave, bold and beautiful future together. For the very first time in your life, you were prepared to have no need for secrets, believing that a love that never lies, never dies.
While it was never destined for me and Jenny to make it to the altar, we were happily together for around six months before I broke off the relationship and returned to England. While I have never forgotten that romantic evening when I booked the restaurant for two, I don't think that Jenny, or the Italian restaurant owner for that matter, will have either!
It must be the romantic or the author in me that reinforces the belief that true love is an never-ending story. I have never regretted any woman I have ever loved, whatever the ending and I've always believed that no time spent in love was ever wasted. I will end with a quote from one of my favourite authors, D.H. Lawrence, 'In every living thing there is the desire for love.'" William Forde: August 2nd, 2016.