Will Love Also Wrinkle?

I just can't get over it. I know it's not Valentine's Day and there is no special occasion for me to use as alibi just to be able to write about love and its mysteries. But since love for me is an everyday celebration, I want to share an experience or shall I say, vivid portrayals of love's intricacies, mysteries and promise. In my previous article, How to Keep True Love Eternally Burning, I shared that love is not a seasonal feeling and talking about it every day is just an admirable thing to do. So, this is it.

Falling in love is indescribable. We would like to say that love is this and that, but it’s actually not. Do you get what I mean? That's why I don't want to define love because I know I cannot fathom its deepest meaning. The subtle surprises and all-out thrills of love and falling in love are quite sensational and inspiring. So in this article, I will show you the phases of love—the ones I know of through the romantic and charming scenes I witnessed firsthand—and how I feel about each of them.

A public transport (the one we call jeepney here in the Philippines) caught me by surprise when a teenage couple carelessly showed off each other's affection inside the moving vehicle. With the boy swaddling his scrawny arms around the pallid girl's neck, and frequently kissing each other, the accurate demonstration of the so-called "public display of affection" was outwardly tried by the very young couple. It appeared that their actions were telling the minute world that they are so in love and they are so self-assured about it. And like, "Who cares? This is our world and we are weaving our love story.”

After an exhausting window shopping, I decided to take a bite at a famous food chain. While I was enjoying a hearty meal on the corner, I was delighted watching a beautiful couple with their two children from across my table. The interesting part of their scene was, aside from being equally charming, they were obviously madly in love with each other. Isn’t it sweet to find two people, amid the crowd, taking turns in extending a mouthful to each other? And almost forgetting they both have kids to feed, they were teasing each other like high school sweethearts. Oh, what a beautiful love story they may have and it made me want to fall in love again and again.

One afternoon, I was settling on a corner by the mall’s atrium when I spotted a middle-aged couple on the ground floor waiting for the mall's event to begin. I am not sure if this was snooping on some strangers’ lives, but while waiting for the performance to commence, the husband turned to his wife and made a sign relating to his prickling back, and obviously begging her to scratch it. Without any dissension, the wife patiently and carefully obliged. It's a ravishing sight to see a wife calmly tending to the trifling demand of a loving husband. Don't you think it's adorable?

It's a Sunday and definitely no traffic. But it took awhile for me to learn why there was a long line of vehicles on the street near my place. Then, I was completely surprised to witness the sluggish couple, maybe in their 80s, holding hands while traversing the street one step at a time until they arrived at the other side. I was a bit animated at how love inflamed two old people on that moment. I saw a concrete exemplification of an enduring love—a "'til death do us part" scenario that was very inspirational.

Four different sets of couples in four distinct episodes. But all of them are expressions of a powerful feeling, simple proofs that love really moves in mysterious ways. Through those four phases of love, I learned that love can be daring, can be intensely passionate, can be truly patient, and can be endless.

There were beautiful and famous couples whose love stories we follow. We took a journey with them from the early part of their relationship to their engagement, to their wedding plans, and to their wedding day—and even to the moment they had their first child. But we ended up slightly devastated, because after several years we found them on the news—breaking up. But there are also romantic tales that will stir our hearts and remind us of the importance of love and family. Such is the love story of John and Elizabeth Baxter in Karen Kingsbury’s novel, which made my closest friend cry.

With so much news on married couples from different places filing for divorce or annulment, I hope that these stories will inspire everyone to never allow the embers of love from dying but instead, kindle it with passion and sincerity to keep the fire always burning.