...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEMSJf723BI

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Alright, 

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So your curse is self doubt.

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You believe yourself to be undeserved of the thing you want most

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And so you torture yourself, having not yet obtained it.

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Alright;

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I think,

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And I'd just be guessing, but, 

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You need me to tell you what I know of love

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And perhaps then, lookers on may determine

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That heartbreak, is not exactly what ails me.

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Love's whole magic,

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Its deep rooted secret,

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Relies on being unrequited.

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Given,

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As a gift,

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As a given thing,

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Absent return,

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Totally independent of reception.

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That is love's purity.

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Okay,

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Now I'll say the same thing

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But in marginally different language.

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"I love you."

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"Not for your photographs,"

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"Not your taste in music,"

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"Not for your beauty,"

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"Not your compassion,"

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"Not your poetry,"

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"Not because I want you to be with me,"

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"Not because I want you to want to have sex with me"

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"And not because you have anything I need."

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"I don't do it because I need your validation,"

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"Not for affirmation,"

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"Not security,"

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"Not because I need to feel happy."

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"I love you, purely and completely,"

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"Because of who you are."

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"I would love you if you never changed."

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"I would love you if you refused to stay the same."

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"I love you blind - here,"

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"Take it."

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"It's yours."

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"And I don't need you to give it back."

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Can you see the magic in that?

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Can you see how powerful a thing that is?

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Alright -

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This time the furnace analogy.

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Loving someone, 

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Anybody, anything or any one,

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Like that,

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Is the act of reaching into your own fire,

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Into your own light,

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Dipping into it,

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Pulling a spark

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And handing it away - 

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A piece of you

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To another person, 

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To a friend,

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Or to an idea -

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Offering it truly, placing it in that other furnace

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And asking for no ember in return.

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That is unrequited love.

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If the case be, that someone does this for you, 

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And you do the same -

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Reach in, pull your spark, and hand it to them -

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Know that you do it not because you have to,

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Not because you're obligated to

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But solely because you want to -

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In exactly the same manner that they did.

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When that happens, two halves make a whole

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And you have the epitomized romantic love -

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Entirely predicated on mutuality,

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Because of the act itself 

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And nothing else.

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Alright, 

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Here lies the problem.

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How do you know it's unrequited?

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How can you possibly love anything, that much,

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So very blindly?

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How could it ever last?

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The answer is you don't.

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You probably can't.

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And it may not.

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If you could know before hand, it would affect the reason for giving it

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And it wouldn't have any power.

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It would defeat the purpose.

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It would be any old love,

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Found at any old corner store -

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You could sell it for 9.95

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And everyone would buy it.

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The secret, 

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The pure love,

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Comes entirely from the gift.

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Who cares if you like it?

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If you don't want it, don't take it.

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But I'm going to offer it anyway.

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That's the magic.

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My heartbreak is superfluous -

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I won't ask for yours in return.

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Though this idea is so easy to dilute -

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That's why I do it.

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I do it badly.

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But I never give it to something I don't want to

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And I do my best not to expect anything in return.

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I do it badly, 

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But the reason most people fall in love

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Is because that act of selflessness inspires a feeling.

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You can't manufacture it,

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Don't try.

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But if you think you don't deserve the thing,

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Evidently, you aren't aware of its happening.

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Author's Note

I hope that helps.

Reviews

[John the Baptist]

Pure, selfless love, given freely, without expectation of reciprocity. The question is not how often it happens, but how long does it last.

[Ookpik]

It rarely does - because it requires not just the one half, but both.

[Ookpik]

Yet it remains the act that matters most.

[John the Baptist]

The act does indeed require a courage most of us have not yet developed.

[Ookpik]

Myself included, I think.

Apologies for the night before - I was too drunk to know who the author was. I mistook your writing for Jacob's, and even then, I probably shouldn't have been typing.

[John the Baptist]

No apology needed. Go easy on that stuff.