Illusive Love
And do I dream of love?
Yes, often and always;
the possibility of finding love haunts me,
but I realize that in this world of illusion
nothing is as it would first appear.
In our world to have is to have not
even that which we have;
and to gain is to gain not
even that which we want;
and to need is to need not,
for in the needing lies life's greatest deception,
causing weakness which will in time
create disappointment and heartache.
Nothing in love seems to be achieved forever,
except the wanting of it and the memory.
When we love, we must choose what we are willing to live with
and what we are willing to live without.
Nothing is ever gained in life without sacrificing something.
To play the game of love we must be willing
TO SACRIFICE EVERYTHING
IN ORDER TO OBTAIN WHAT MAY NOT EVEN EXIST,
for no one but God can know the state of another person's heart.
What then is love?
It is a quality that we see in another person
which makes us willing to sacrifice to them
in order to gain the completeness which we feel
when we are with them.
To love we must be willing to give up that which we have
in order to attain joy and closeness with them,
and they also must be willing to give up that which they have
in order to gain that closeness and joy with us.
In other words, true love must be unselfish, and able to bend
and grow with the demands of life and time.
That is the only kind of love that will last forever.
If we are unselfish, we will even find love in our old age.
Such a love will proceed us into eternity.
That is the reason why love is seldom achieved,
and why our world lacks fulfillment and happiness.
Janet Marie Bingham
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