I feel bad for leaving you all hanging so long... I was doing so well at posting every week then nothing. It's just that I usually wait for something to happen in my life I can see a lesson in to share with you that will be inspiring to you... Lately, there is nothing of the kind going on... And I'm not being negative here, I am just "In the waiting" (Greg Long has a song called "in the waiting" and it's a good listen so check it out, I've also been listening to a lot of planet shakers and they're pretty great as well... Enough of the Shakesperean aside ha!) I've thought of something unrelated to my present life I could share... Although as I start writing I can see it's not really unrelated at all...
One of my favorite Shakespearean writings is Sonnet 116 (below)... I say "one of my favorite" because I pretty much love Shakespeare anything. I suppose it's because he believed in love, and not just any love but TRUE LOVE! Which, let's face it, is a dying hope in the world these days. With divorce rates sky-rocketing (and my parents adding to statistics) I've always been afraid to love. Of course, it's only now I recognize it's not love I fear but the act of loving. It's not that I would think it a difficult task to fall into love, but possibly that I would fall and the man still be standing above it all when I crash to the ground. I always have been a stickler for the man pursuing the woman (and will remain so! It's my opinion every LADY should be pursued not the pursuer) but what about once he is pursuing, I need to be able to allow myself to love him back and so do you!
Just now, writing to you, I feel the need to make a commitment and possibly encourage you to make one of your own. The issue is, I want love in my life! I want love in every relationship but specifically I want "the love of my life" to come along (quick like a bunny, ha!) Someone to laugh with, cry to, be quiet with, to understand (although I hear that one takes lots of time and effort), someone to love... "Don't you want somebody to love. Dooon't you need somebody to love!"
I know, I know, this is strange territory to be crossing; admitting I'm not completely satisfied in my single status... But I heard something on Karate Kid (of all places) that got me thinking "being still and not doing anything are two separate things" and likewise being happy in a moment and satisfied in the encompassing situation are two separate things. I am happy, I'm not crying at night or fretting over whether that knight in shining armour has lost his horse in some horrible accident and has now worn his legs down to nubs trying to walk to me all these years, ha! I am, however, looking forward to the possibilities and expecting a breathtaking love to be just around the corner, and if not the next corner the one after that. So here it is, the commitment:
"I promise to never stop waiting for that moment of breathlessness. To remain happy in my own skin but hopeful for what is to come! I promise to not settle for "Mr. I need someone right now" and leave "Mr. I need you for the rest of my life" without the perfect match (ME!) I promise to believe in love and fight for it just as much as Mr. Shakespeare (or was he a Sir?.. Anyway...) I promise not to let anyone force me into unbelief, lack of trust or dashed hopes whether it be "friends," family or other. I promise to remain happy for others around me who uncover this precious gift in their own lives and let their success be a sign of the successes to come in my life! I promise my Prince Charming that once I do know you're the one I will love you every second without doubt or wavering faith in our relationship, with God in the middle of it all! Most of all I promise to trust you, God, to lead us both down the path that will have us running directly into each other sooner than I think!"
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose Worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom:
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved!
"The poet begins by stating he should not stand in the way of true love. Love cannot be true if it changes for any reason. Love is to be constant, through any difficulties... Love should not fade with time; instead, true love lasts forever. When it says "Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom," Shakespeare is saying that love is timeless, and only death can do it part.
The last two lines employ a paradoxical conceit. If there is no such thing as true love, the poet says that neither has he ever written, nor has anyone ever experienced true love. However, because the poem has been written, it means the poet, ultimately, is right about true love."
And let it be said that I WHOLE-HEARTEDLY agree!
