Happy Valentine’s Day!
I’ve been thinking about love a lot recently. I started writing a romantic novel before Christmas (for adults) though it’s been put aside while I re-work a story I’ve had on the go for ages. And just a few days ago, I dug out my musical compositions from my teenage years. Gosh, there are a lot of romantic tunes. They’re not half bad, some of them – and the part of me that remembers vividly what it was like to be a teenager connects with them all over again.
Love exists in many forms, of course, but maybe the one we find most powerful, most compelling, most intriguing, is the kind that takes you over. Why do people fall in love? And how does it happen? How can you look at one person in a completely different way to someone else? Objectively, they’re just a person – but somehow when you’re with them, something mystical happens. No one has ever been able to explain it, and that’s the magical part of it. It’s hard to fight, because you don’t know how to switch it off. I was in love for a long time with the wrong man, back in my twenties. Years, really. Only space and time reduced the feeling – and when I saw him again (after fifteen years) I was surprised how much of it was still there.
Maybe those people we fall in love with become part of who we are? Maybe something about their energy; their essence; takes up root in our soul. Do you ever truly get over someone?
I first fell in love with a boy aged twelve. It was all-consuming. He was all I thought about. I knew with absolute certainty that he was the one for me. He wasn’t, of course (and I no longer believe that there is only one person for each of us), but I haven’t seen him since we were teenagers. How would I feel if I met him now? I kind of feel that he’s still there, in my heart.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you all, and to the pieces of other people in your soul. And happy Valentine’s Day to my husband, who took up residence in my heart twelve years ago and will always be there.
Jo Cotterill 