Love, Ageless And Evergreen
No Objects of Affection
There's a story of a teenage girl who wanted to know the difference between loving a boy and liking a boy.She met an old woman while she walked through her favorite park and they'd see each other almost daily. One day the old woman finally stopped her and asked what it was that was so troubling her.
"Dear? What's bothering you so much? I see you everyday and just thought I'd ask and I do hope you don't mind," asked the old woman.
"Oh no! I've seen you too and I don't mind at all! I want to know if what I feel is love towards a boy or if it's just me liking the whole idea of having a boyfriend of my own. Does that make sense?" the soft spoken girl inquired.
"Oh my yes! I was your age too, you know?" replied the old woman with a smile on her face.
"Well yes! I know you were my age once but I wonder if things have changed since you were my age," the girl asked with embarrassing inflection.
"One thing that will never change, sweetheart, is that you and I have never been right here and right now. The time is always now but a whole lot of people never seem to know it. They're here and now like you and I are, but their minds are way off in the past or in the future. Does that make sense, Dear?" the old woman finished.
"Yes, it does ma'am! Very much so but if I'm honest, I'm rarely in this here and now as you just mentioned," the pretty doe eyed girl flatly responded.
The old woman laughed heartily, smiled and took the girl by her hand and led her to a quiet spot right in front of two fully blooming flowers.
"Aren't they just beautiful dear?" the old woman asked with the widest smile the girl had ever seen.
"Why yes! They're gorgeous. I've walked past this place every day since school let out and never noticed them!" the girl exclaimed.
The old woman gripped her hand and replied, "Oh goodness, dear child! Don't beat yourself up over that because we all must do the same before it catches our attention!"
The girl appeared puzzled for a moment before asking, "Before it catches our attention? What is the "IT" you are talking about?" the mesmerized girl asked curiously.
The woman stilled her eyes on the two blooming flowers and asked the teenage girl which of the flowers she'd most like to take home with her to decorate the kitchen table with.
The girl let go of the old woman's hand and peered closer at the two flowers before asking, "You asked me which of the two flowers I'd like to take home with me, right?"
"Yes dear! Which flower? Take your time," the woman patiently responded.
"Ma'am? I don't mean this disrespectfully, but to answer your question, I don't like either of the flowers enough to take home with me," the girl answered with a tear in her eye.
The old woman hugged the girl tightly and began to shed a few tears herself before she looked at her new young friend directly in her softly loving eyes and, with broken speech, asked, "You now know the it I was referring to don't you my precious angel?"
"Yes ma'am! I get it now. We love very little anything or anyone we really only desire to pluck just so we can say we possess. I'm not so sure I can honestly say I would even like anyone very much who I somehow saw as merely a possession," the teary eyed teenager replied.
"You have had it since birth, dear heart! I didn't show you anything new or something you didn't already know. We love what we allow to grow. We all must be reminded of it!" the old woman said with radiant eyes.
"Yes ma'am! It is really hard to love an IT, isn't it?" the beaming girl asked with laughter in her voice.
The two walked out of the park together as the old woman pointed to a tall Evergreen tree."That's love. It never changes."
Copyright © 2018 Brian Jett --- Kentucky
Author's note: If you desire happiness you will be anxious lest you do not attain it. You will be constantly in a state of dissatisfaction; and dissatisfaction and anxiety kill the very happiness that they set out to gain. Rather, happiness arises naturally when attachment has been eliminated, like the blue sky that is revealed when the clouds clear.