Finding Love in Strange Places

Keeping your eyes wide open to the possibility of love at all times means it may appear when you least expect it. Love, of course, does not have to mean a love affair or a marriage. Love may simply consist of an ephemeral greeting of a street mongrel who shares a companionable half an hour with you as you both walk through a park, only to happily lope off into the distance as you reach a more heavily transited street. Or love may consist of a proud young cat rubbing herself against your legs as you cross a village street, and then later waiting for you with a plaintive miaow as you emerge from the restaurant where you had gone to eat - and she is clearly not after you for food, because you can see how sleek, well-fed, and cared for she is - but to indicate that she had enjoyed your company and was a bit perplexed that you had disappeared for so long.

Love may find you in the guise of an amused smile across a crowded waiting room as another person there shares unspoken words with you about the beguiling antics of a toddler. Love may sneak up on you as you wave at a child whose wide eyes are gazing at you with undisguised curiosity and friendliness in the car next to yours at a traffic light. Love may fly up to you unexpectedly as a butterfly hovers over and eventually lands on your arm, remaining there for breathless seconds that leave you in awe. Love may appear when the first young shoots of perennials that you planted emerge through the snow. Love may show you a most unexpected face when a stranger offers to let you ahead in line, pays for your toll without ever letting you know who he/she is, or your new neighbor rakes the leaves on your lawn.

Why do I label the quality of these scenarios as love? After all, they are, as said, ephemeral and evanescent, and they come and go, therefore, in the wink of an eye. If you're not mindful, you might miss these precious events. There is a momentary sharing that occurs - which - if you are on the lookout for it, can leave you with a keen sense of satisfaction, and of having received a brief moment of love and warm connection from that other individual, animal, or even plant. Is that not also love? Is it not also a wondrous thing to experience? And can it not be added to all that for which you are grateful?

Image: Ukraine's leafy Tunnel of Love near the town of Klevan

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