A piece for Valentine’s Day

Must love be returned to be worth the effort?
It seems many believe it must. Therefore, we have an aversion to the term unrequited love. Unrequited love is love that is one-sided or unreciprocated, and many have a negative reaction to the idea. Perhaps because it suggests one loved another, yet for some reason, likely a perceived insufficiency, they were not warmly received. Seemingly, not solely what they offered, but they themselves were denied.

Such conjures up images of a nerd who tried to date a beautiful girl in high school. But each day, she walked past him without a fleeting glance. Or a maid who developed an affection for a prince who never saw her as worthy of anything more than cleaning his dirty floors. To bring the concept of unrequited love to life, many portray it in stories, songs, and movies such as The Great Gatsby and Letters from an Unknown Woman. There, love is cast in a gloomy light, lending a morose shadow.

From dark to light

However, there is something uniquely beautiful, perhaps an undeniable purity, when love is offered in its pure form, i.e., as a gift, expecting nothing. Because without expectation of reciprocation, one loves freely and is inconceivably delighted to receive anything at all. Therefore, after offering the best they have, if they are not received, they walk away peacefully. Such love is divine. It is what many desire and relatively few find. Perhaps because it requires unquantifiable courage to see that loving is an investment of the heart, where the investor earnestly believes the opportunity to invest is their greatest reward. Yet adopting such a mindset is not an easy feat, as it requires one’s heart to expand and operate at an irrepressible capacity. – A state in which we might say one transcends from dark to light and floats in the realm of angels.

Indeed, love is not for the faint of heart. So, friend, if you question whether love is worth the risk, remember that when love is true, the opportunity to love another is the reward.

For you and to you,
Aké

Image credit: Pixabay | Geralt