When someone says they have fallen in love with someone, one often doubts that the person has truly fallen. We doubt this because we’re not so comfortable in defining true love or being in love. We go into these long explanations about “falling in love” or “being in love” because we are trying to justify what love really means. I believe in the power of love. Love has many levels and many feelings, and we cannot (and should not) keep love in a jar sealed up with a labeled definition.
I want to tell you about this young woman who has fallen in love. I truly believe that she is in love with this man. It’s been two years and he has not noticed; however, she still feels for him. She doesn’t wait by the phone; she doesn’t bother him at all. She patiently awaits him and learns about him and falls deeper and deeper. His actions, his likes, and dislikes are all duly noted; she finds that they have more in common. Many men have her name on their lips, but her thoughts are on this one…her only one.
He’s never seen her. The real her. He doesn’t know that she believes in the same things as he does. He doesn’t know that she believes in him as a man and as a person. She’s read his poetry and hurts along with him. His written words have come alive in her heart and the biggest challenge she has is sacrificing her own traditions and family just wanting to be with him.
She has dreams about him – dreams that she tells him how much she loves him. The dreams are realistic, yet haunting. She notices how other women flaunt and flirt with him, and how she cannot do that – it’s not for her to be so public – yet she wants him to just notice her silence and her quiet admiration for him.
He’s over there…somewhere else and she longs to be with him, in his heart. It doesn’t have to be a physical presence, but the spiritual connection that love brings to two people. She is walking along a sacrificial path in hopes that one day, in an obscure way, he’ll notice that she has been there – in his corner, cheering him on.
Yet, she cringes inside. As she goes about her daily routine and betters herself, she’s dying inside. Her laughter and smile is often masked with questions like “Why doesn’t he like me?” “What have I done to him?” The painful questions plague her. Although she wants to move on and forget everything about him – give in to the fact that it’s never going to happen – she still loves him. Deep inside of her being, she loves him.
I know the difference between a crush, infatuation, and love. Love makes you see beyond the physical. Her story is immortalized in a novel that is forever etched in words, imagery, and dialogue. Love is real. At first, she did not want to admit that she loved him, but each year, the torch burns brighter and brighter.
One day, she will reach out to him, and as a woman, she will utter the words that she loves him. She is hoping that these words will engulf him and make him realize what true love is all about – it surpasses time; it tears down walls; and, it heals the wounds. However, she never suspected that love would hurt so badly. She had never imagined that love would kill her inside. She is dying inside…every time she sees his smiling face, hears his voice, and reads his words.
And, in the midst of her breaking heart, camouflaging as love, she asks him “Give me a chance.”
Romeo and Juliet have nothing compared to her.
The Roaring Lioness 