LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON

LIFE IS A SPIRAL

- NENY REGINO

As we near the culmination of Love Month, I am reminded of what Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho wrote: “One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”

Aside from Christmas Day, perhaps no other day in the calendar can rival Valentine's Day in February when people busy themselves with the preoccupations and symbols that have come to express and celebrate love. And this celebration is not only confined to romantic love. It includes love for family, friends and even pets.

Many young people often mistake their first love for true love. They remember the sweet words said to them, the loving gestures they give each other as they try to understand their feelings. First love happens so fast (we don't even know what it was but I do know that my heart fluttered every time I would see a guy I liked). Sadly, first love usually does not last. It rarely grows into what is called real love.

But in a small corner of our hearts, I suppose we all hide the pain of a young love that ended.

But let me digress from this kind of love. I would like to talk about the seniors who found love at the sunset of their lives. It definitely is not first love but a love that came out of nowhere. The relationship happened quietly; they talked, they listened, they laughed, they cried at some of their stories, and then they found it! What was it? They didn't know what it was.