Memoirs of an Amnesiac

My favorite poet once said that "Love is like a wildflower in the deepest parts of a forest. You'll never know there's so much beauty that existed but when you meet one, you'll be amazed" (rephrased).

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I'm all psyched up about sharing all those "wonderful yet bizarre" love story beginnings from people I know and thought they might be worth sharing since we're in the season of love.

1. The closer you look, the less you'll see. This is what I could say to my close friend's love story. He and her husband used to be classmates in college. She even once jokingly quipped that he was her "cheatmate" way back. She was also the "bridge" between her husband's ex and him. Never had she imagined they would end up together. She was looking into the possibilities of spending the rest of her life with her first boyfriend of seven years. In retrospect, she was glad she had married her husband or she would not have been happier as she is now.

2. The odds. Another story also strikes quite a strong chord with me as with my other friend when she confesses that though she and her first love never ended up together, their children did. She has three girls and the second of the girls married her first love's son. Now, in the early stages of their children's courtship, she was not always the type that was totally okay with the situation. There was something inside her (that girl some years back) who wanted to see herself and her first love ending up together. Now, talk about legacy.

3. Uncanny. My close friend and travel buddy also shares how she and her boyfriend of seven years met. They just happen to meet of all places in a common friend's wake. The rest was history. They never knew how grieving could end up creating a common ground of interests between them and a budding relationship at that. Both coming from unpleasant break-ups, they probably have mourned over their losses but it's true when they say that with death comes life.

4. Worth the Wait. And there are of course lots of stories about couples not ending up in each other's arms. But somehow found their way into each other in the later parts of their life. One of which are two old folks I look up to and had a chance to meet. I often saw them holding hands and walking in front of me (who happens to wait for my bus ride every morning). To someone like me who was always fond of listening to timeless tales of love and devotion, their story was more than a goner. She was his first love and when the universe somehow turned its back on them, they didn't end up together (on the early parts of their lives, that is). Just then, that same universe conspired to put them back together in each other's lives as when they both lost their spouses as the age of 50 and 55. Whoever said that love is lovelier the second time around truly believes in it.

5. Through it all. There are still those who might not have their "Wacky and Chichay" style of universe-conspiring-for-them love story but still are living each day of their lives wholly devoted to each other even until death. They wake up each day happily looking into the faces of their spouses whom they observed have collected wrinkles on their faces. Yet those same lines are what they considered to be truly beautiful (even when Belo could not touch their skins). They are the lines that ease up their tiresome days, especially when they form into a smile. Even through parenting and budgeting concerns, they live their lives constantly affirming each other how much they love each other just as the first time they met them.

Even when the kind of relationship I treasure now is still in its fetal stage, I look up with so much admiration for all the stories of love I listen to. I know that the kind of love they choose to keep and flourish is not something that even a pixie dust could conjure up with. It takes a lot of courage and strength to keep a relationship going. So much so that you would lose yourself in the process and find parts of it in that person while those parts grow and cultivate into a wonderful relationship that even the universe could never conspire to form.

Love they say is magical. And like magic, it takes a great deal of belief for it to work.

You have got to believe.