Love it was that made us!

 

Love and music have been in the air the past fortnight and I have been ruminating on the power of love to enrapture, beautify, heal and comfort. Romance stories have been a part of our reading journeys since we were fired by hormones in our teens. Books like Gone with the Wind, The Thorn Birds, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and Rebecca have enthralled us and led us on trails of passion and delight of our own. Each one of us craves for the right love to enter our lives to render us from the everyday monotony and harshness of life. The power of LOVE elevates us and fills us with an ultimate feeling of well-being and happiness. From reading and seeing love around us, it is only when we embark on our personal journey of love that we realize that it is not about receiving but giving love, which ultimately fulfills and enriches us.

The books we read are not just love stories, but life stories. Some of them have stayed with me for the larger than life portrayal of a character or an interlude which became life lessons for me. Anna Karenina has been hailed a great classical love story against a backdrop of nineteenth century Russia. Is it only the story of the aristocratic Anna Karennina and her all-consuming passion for Lord Vronsky, a forbidden love that then leads only to pain and destruction? There is a parallel strand of the story of Levin and Kitty, a juxtaposition of the two lives or maybe two novels in one. While Anna Karenina burns brightly for a time, Levin and Kitty light a fire that will keep them warm throughout life. The love life of Levin is crafted on the marriage of Leo Tolstoy himself and Lev which means Leo in Russian is a character sketch of Tolstoy in the four years that he took to write the book.

The Russian society of the times was undergoing an identity crisis. They did not know whether they were western or eastern and under the tutelage of the Czar, they aped French custom and etiquette to the letter and in a sense they were performing as if on a stage. In contrast Levin a socially awkward but generous-hearted landowner prefers to live in the countryside, away from the gliterrati of balls and horse races. He grapples with questions of the meaning of life and strives to find truth in his work, land and relationships. Kitty is sacred to Levin, right from the first day he sights her skating and he is overwhelmed with joy and bewilderment. In spite of their daily differences and squabbles as spouses their relationship blossoms and strengths based on the sacredness. He works hard not only to provide for his family, but makes Kitty his closest companion and friend, his soul mate.  He endears himself to Kitty by opening his vulnerable emotional self to her and is sensitive to her every need and fancy. Whereas his friends are concerned with power, position and money to impress their wives, he is a man of courage, sensitivity and heart. Kitty matures slowly and realizes the hurt she has inflicted on Levin by initially rejecting his offer and wows to be authentic and herself in her pursuit of life. She is her most rational self when Levin is lost and confused about the uncertainties of life – his greatest suffering. His sincerity and search for truth culminates in hope and redemption when he realizes that his life does have a higher purpose: "...my whole life...is not only not meaningless, as it was before, but has the unquestionable meaning of the good which it is in my power to put into it." Tolstoy came upon the virtue of man to transform himself and his potential for goodness and betterment during the writing of this book, where after his life towed a more spiritual path. Levin and Anna are both in turmoil about the question of one’s role in the greater scheme of things, but Levin does not shoot himself, or hang himself, he lives. He is anchored by the love of his family, land and workers.  The book does not end with the tragedy of Anna but with the fruitful life of Levin and Kitty in the countryside, imbued with hope and faith, sharing and giving, and the triumph of the human spirit to higher levels of consciousness.

The relationship of Celie and Shug in The Color Purple is a hard to forget lesson in love. Celie is a scared downtrodden, heavily abused and exploited girl in a black household who is raped for years by her own stepfather. To save her sister the same predicament, she marries Albert who has designs on her sister, and looks after his children, gets beaten, abused and is uncared for. She hates herself and has no identity except being used and worked over and over all her life. Her meeting with Shug Avery, a blues singer and a long standing lover of her husband, brings her across a character who is apparently strong, independent and spoilt as a woman. Celie is astonished to witness the tantrums of Shug and sees a different face of her husband who walks like a dog behind his mistress. She falls in love with Shug and there begins a sexual, deep-rooted companionship of two utterly different women. Through Shug she experiences the pleasures of sex, joy and delight of loving human touch and care. A relationship which lasts decades is mutually beneficial to both and Celie flowers into a new woman with a light step and confident gait. Shug also opens Celie’s eyes to new ideas about religion, empowering Celie to believe in a nontraditional, non-patriarchal version of God.  She realizes her worth, comes to love herself and turns her talent of sewing into a self supporting profitable business and walks out on her husband. After being voiceless for so many years, she is finally content, fulfilled, and self-sufficient. When Nettie, Olivia and Adam return to Georgia from Africa, Celie’s circle of friends and family is finally reunited. Though Celie has endured many years of hardship, she says, “Don’t think us feel old at all. . . . Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt.”
Heidi likewise in her eponymous book brings tears of joy to my heart every time I revisit her in my rereading. She is a lesson in love and life, saving and reforming the lives of every character around her, namely her cynical cold grandfather, the sad, blind and lonely, Peter’s grandmother, her handicapped rich friend Clara and the lost, scatterbrained Peter. Her weapon of transformation to joy, happiness and wholeness is her infinite capacity to love, care and fill her surroundings with the sheer joy of her being. 
Although Vanity no Apologies is the mantra of the age we live in, yet  peace, bliss and joy is in giving and receiving love.
Love it was that made us and it was love that saved us
Love was God's plan when He made man God's divine nature is love
Born of God's love we must love Him
That's why He made us to love Him
But only when we love all men can we partake of God's love (2)
Love is a wonderful thing, joy in hearts it will bring
where there is love there is God and where there is God there is love
Love transforms, heals, and renews. Let’s go find the magic in our lives!