Perennial Love?

There is one phrase in the English language that is often both the flower of your happiness, yet at the same time the root of your depression.

This one phrase is believed by many to be the seed for a blossoming relationship. It is believed to be the source from which all great things grow. It is believed to sprout happiness just by whispering its three simple words: I love you.

This seed, however, is usually covered by a garden of lies.

Buried beneath the dirt of an optimistic society, this phrase flourishes; it is idolized and built into a glorious thing; it becomes the single goal of impassioned adolescents.

The illusion of love is the sole reason for the emotional deterioration of modern teenagers. They set themselves on a dangerous path; a path on which there is no turning back. There is no stopping, there is no forgetting, there is no hope. They devote every waking moment of their lives to tending the tender rose that they now believe is their love.

But what they do not know is that with the rose comes the thorns. The thorns of love are many and numerous, and they are often unexpected. To list them would be fruitless, for unless you have been pricked by the thorns of love, you do not know the pain that drips from the wound. It is inexpressible.

A scar obtained from such a wound will never heal; the pain will never be forgotten. It makes you wonder whether it is a coincidence that when you give someone a rose, it is a symbol of love, but once you give it to that person that blossomed symbol of love dies after a few short short weeks.

Please don't be abhorred by my expansive critique of love, for every aching moment spent under its controlling spell will be remembered and cherished long past the death of the rose. It is much better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.

Much like how a devastating forest fire provides the forest floor with nutrients essential to its health, sometimes you need a disaster to set you back on the right track. Sometimes you need to feel pain to remind you that you can still be caressed. Sometimes you need to experience the wrong to show you what is right. After all, a rose isn't a rose without its thorns.

Do not isolate yourself from the plentiful flowers of emotions in the vast garden of life, but also, do not be surprised when one of those flowers is plucked from right under your nose. For what is a garden's purpose, if not to ensure that an ugly seed will flourish into a flower and be taken away just when it is most beautiful?

Realize that emotions are meant to come and go, and do not let yourself be set captive by that one, angelic rose. No matter the depth of its beauty, there will forever be a garden of others to replace it, each beautiful - and as horrendous - as the last.