Looking for love

Is like asking a fish where the water is

She is swimming in it

Without even knowing it

 

Who and when implanted this idea

Of needing to find love

And with it

The notion that we have somehow lost it

 

The baby is born

She loves everything

Mom and Dad

And trees and doors

And cat hairs

Not all things are equally good for her

But she loves them anyway

 

Can we pinpoint the moment

Where someone, somehow

Connected love with the fear of losing it

Because that is the moment we lost ourselves

 

The legend says we are still finding ourselves

As a humanity

Which is the root of all evil

Because denying the love we have in us for us

Denies it for the world that created us

 

Not that love of others is not important

But it is like dessert

You first eat the sweetest part

And it never lasts forever

No matter how good it is

Like life

 

One thing that does last is the love you give

I am defined by what and who I love

Not what loves me back

My whole being is rooted in

Kindness and compassion

And unconditional love for the world

 

I said unconditional

It is a work in progress

But I am at least trying

Which is the most anyone can do

Right

 

There is that one heartbreak

That is to us

What to fish would be

To be taken out of water

It alerts it to the existence of said water

 

And maybe we need heartbreaks

To remind us of the oceans of love

We are swimming in

And to help us navigate the darkness

 

Maybe that is what is understood by love is suffering

But one thing I can promise you

The love you have for others

Is never suffering

It is the ultimate joy

Just don’t let it be weight down

By expectations of being loved back

 

Because even a fish could not survive

If you put cement in the ocean

So do yourself the same courtesy

As you would to a fish

Let it live

Let it love

Let it be