Trueness

 

Like all the great creations of humanity, love is twofold:

it is the supreme happiness and the supreme misfortune . . . 

Lovers pass constantly from rapture to despair, 

from sadness to joy, from wrath to tenderness, 

from desperation to sensuality . . . 

The lover is perpetually driven by contradictory emotions. 

Popular language, in all times and all places, 

abounds in expressions that describe the vulnerability 

of a person in love: love is a wound, an injury. 

But as St. John of the Cross says, it is 'a wound that is a gift,

' a 'gentle cautery,' a 'delightful wound.' 

Yes, love is a flower of blood. 

It is also a talisman: 

the vulnerability of lovers protects them. 

Their shield is their lack of defense; their armor is their nakedness. 

[ . . . ] 

Yet despite all the ills and misfortunes it brings, 

we always endeavor to love and be loved. 

Love is the closest thing on this earth 

to the beatitude of the blessed.

~ Octavio Paz ~

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