The Colombian Nobel prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez published the novel Love in the Time of Cholera in Spanish in 1985. Have you read it? Do you remember how in the novel lovesickness is suggested to be a literal illness, something like a plague, comparable to cholera?

In the story, the main character, Florentino Ariza suffers from lovesickness and he suffers greatly, enduring both physical and emotional pains as he longs for the love of the beautiful Fermina Daza. His symptoms are those of people suffering from cholera.

Throughout the story, Florentino complicates his emotional pain with physical agony which the foolhardy man inflicts on himself, therefore, it can be argued that Florentino’s illness transcends the physical to the psychological.

Though he is sick in his heart, the man is compulsively obsessed, that one inevitably comes to think that Florentino is mentally disturbed. Poor brother!

But get this, for the fifty-one years, nine months, and four days that Florentino is apart from his beloved Fermina — yes, that’s how long he withstands — he revels in the pain his unrequited love inflicts.

He enjoys the suffering and anguish he endures for love, he feels martyred, satisfied for sacrificing himself in the name of love. The torment he suffers sustains him, he sees it as gratifying, a strengthening experience that he believes will lead him to his ultimate desire — Fermina.

He believes. And in case all that doesn’t lead him to Fermina, he reasons that he must feel something, even if that something is pain. Poor brother!
He endures pain for all those years…

In my very early twenties when the book entered the grand stage, I was probably going through my own lovesickness, thankyouverymuch. I was probably too full of myself then as well. In any case, the timing was off.

I read it or started reading it but put it down for other more inspirational things as I couldn’t understand that kind of lovesickness.

I lovelovelove the Colombian Nobel prize-winning author, his style, humor, voice, and presence. I will give this novel one of my slow readings, I must! Decades ago, I wasn’t ready to give Florentino the respect his maker intended for me.

In the meantime, allow me to tell you how I feel about love today.

Love, ah love!

Only love is real! Love is Energy. Love is the intuitive knowledge of our souls. And the way that we come to experience love is through non-judgment, giving, compassion, acceptance, kindness, and virtues that come from ‘the purity’ that lives in us. Love IS our default setting. It lives in us, but in our busy-ness, we lose sight of it. Sometimes.

Fear of not being loved back in return keeps us in an abyss, sometimes of our own making. (think Florentino Ariza)
Fear undervalues who we are. We are love.

“Love wasn’t put in your heart to stay.
Love isn’t love until it’s given away.” — Michael W. Smith

I think that Vulnerability is a virtue; it’s up there with compassion, acceptance, and non-judgment only, being vulnerable requires that we switch off the learned adult mindset that separates us from our core and switch on the child, the purity of a child’s soul that is our core.

Love, like peace, is something that you become.

“This is your time, this is your dance.
Live every moment, leave nothing to chance.
Swim in the Sea, drink of the deep,
Embrace the mystery of all you could be.
What if tomorrow? And what if today?
Faced with the question,
Oh, what would you say?” — Michael W. Smith

I dedicate this one to You, my amazing friends who read my words. My heart is full of gratitude and love. Know that.
And if you feel like reaching out to me in the comments to talk or to whisper something, please do.
Know too that your comments are screened first. By me.
Bloggers know this. You might not.
If ever you do not want your comments to appear on my website do tell me.
You and me >> Pen Pals. Yay!

Last month, I posted consistently in my Writing Community. Two weeks into July, I’m on Week 7 of another rewrite. I decided to cut a big chunk from the original manuscript. We’ll see how far I can take this. Wish me well.

BTW, what are you reading these days?
Digital/Audio Books I completed in June:
-Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
-The Birds, Daphne du Maurier
-Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
-The Great Gatsby, F.S. Fitzgerald
-Poetry, by Gurpreet Dhariwal

Paperback Books, ongoing reading:
-The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (402 pgs)
-The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (503 pgs)

-The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (audio)
-Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (audio)

Want to read:
-The Imposter by Terrye Turpin
-The Signature of All Things by Liz Gilbert

ALSO, I got a great response to my June Newsletter. It included my reply to a questionnaire. It seemed to resonate with many. If you’d like me to send it to you, I’d be happy to. Drop me a note. [Selma’s COVID-19 Resiliency Barometer : 12 Questions] Nice title, huh?!
All for today.

THANK YOU FOR READING
I Wish You Miracles