ROMANTIC MUSINGS: Thief of Hearts

“Steal a little and they’ll put you in jail, steal a lot and they’ll make you a king!” ~Bob Dylan

We all search for treasure.

Happiness, wealth, health, and love are the precious stones of the soul. Some hold more value than others depending on the perspective of each individual, but ultimately we hope to possess them all.

We dream, we plot, we hope and we pray to stumble upon these treasures without realizing that we already have one or two and only need the third to find the last.

Wealth goes beyond monetary value, but we only see our need for financial security. It’s a practical endeavor, and despite the family and friends who enrich our lives, we feel poor in the absence of fiscal wealth.

Our health goes beyond being in perfect physical condition, but we only see our self-perceived flaws of weight, unique features, and the scars of life. Is it vanity, or an unrealistic perception of beauty bestowed upon us by a society obsessed with outward appearance in lieu of inward reflection?

Though we may not be able to run a mile in less than seven minutes, we take for granted that our lungs have not failed us. Though we may need optical assistance to see more clearly, we fail to realize that we have not gone blind. Our bodies may ache, and we complain without realizing there are others who have lost their limbs.

Our inability to acknowledge our wealth of personal relationships: family, friends, and acquaintances…and the overall well-being of our health essentially robs us of our own happiness.

And so, we seek out the third: love.

For some it’s the love of our parents, our children, our friends and other relations, but for others it’s the search for that life-defining love that we pursue.

This love takes on many forms from: first love, lost love, romantic love, passionate love, undying love, and last love.

You’d think they are all the same, but in truth each contains elements of the others, yet possesses an identity all its own.

We search for these in many of the people we meet and may even be fortunate enough to one or two throughout the various stages of our lives.

The luckiest ones, I believe, are the ones who find two particular types of love in their lives.

There’s that love of your life, and then there’s your once-in-a-lifetime love.

They may resemble each other with echoes of passion and reflections of romance, but one will teach you how to love and the other will show you how you should be loved.

The first, you look upon with great anticipation and hope beyond hope that it will last forever. For some, it just so happens to workout in their favor. For others, destiny has a different plan.

The second, you look upon with suspicion and approach with caution. You’re more likely to resist it, and even convince yourself that you don’t need it. But in order to complete your treasure, you do.

It will resemble love as your remember it: the good, the bad, and the unbelievable, yet it will reveal to you things about love you did not know were possible. In essence, it becomes a curative journey for a broken heart.

Through the process of that salvation, you may not even realize how your presence provides the same comfort in return.

And as you dance together to the rhythm of your hearts, you reveal to one another the treasures of your health and your wealth and discover that you’ve found happiness hidden in the chest of your lives.

What about your hearts, though?

Where have they gone?

What has become of your most cherished possession?

The most fragile and priceless artifact of your existence. That rare gem you kept locked away in the vault of your soul.

What became of your heart?

What became of theirs?

It is then that you realize you have each stolen the other’s heart, and it is in that moment that your treasures are complete, for you will do anything to protect it.