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February 11, 2013

The Elephant of Love. ~ Ayşe Ay

What is love?

Can you hold it? Can you buy it? Can you change it?

Can you pray for it and get it?

What does it look like? Is it like a fish, which is hard to catch by hand? Is it like a genie that grants your wishes? Is it a prison that holds you and claims your freedom? Or, is it a bird flying like a wanderer?

How does it smell? Like an ocean, a rose, rubbish or soup?

All these questions and answers remind me of the story in the book, The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm. Several men were asked to describe an elephant in the dark. One, touching his trunk, said, “This animal is like a water pipe.” Another, touching his ear, said, “This animal is like a fan.” A third, touching his legs, described the animal as a pillar.

I lived in my limited human body and walked in the darkness of my unconsciousness. I tried to touch the love and experience different sensations and define love through them. Once I had touched the back foot of the elephant, it kicked me away and I thought love gave me pain.   Another time, I had come close to it’s trunk and it wound it around my waist and held on tight. I got bored and thought love meant imprisonment.

Now, I realize that these are just experiences or lessons for me to look for the love in the right place, inside myself, my heart. I don’t need to go anywhere; I don’t need to do anything. I just need to be brave enough to be myself and to be with myself.

Keep my silence and be one with it. No need for words, descriptions, category. Just flow with it as if I were a drop in the river of life.

Ayşe Ay is a hopeless dreamer, a dedicated dynamic  yoga student, an English teacher in Turkey and likes writing, especially for children.

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Assistant Ed: Karla Rodas/ Ed: Lynn Hasselberger

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