It was many years ago when my aunty was at the hospital bed. I traveled then from Lagos to Umuahia to visit her. Sitting at the hospital bed Mamma beckoned to me and said "Ifeanacho come here". I came close by her and she laid her hands upon me and said "Ifeanacho you know the story of your birth, I want you to be happy and to live long with whoever you are going to marry in life. You must not marry someone you love so much more than she loves you rather you must marry the woman who loves you much more than you love her and in that way you will be very happy and fulfilled and you will live long"
Today, looking back all these years and all the paths and the people I have met, I have come to the conclusion that my aunt was wise and right. Mama as I always call her was very wealthy and has lived with only one husband whom she married as a young orphan girl. I have seen the various shades and seasons of life as I traveled on this journey of life. I have met the beautiful and ugly, the sweet and bitter, the betrayers and the fake ones. I have met the liars, the cheaters and the hypocrites and the heartlessly wicked. I have also met those who cared nothing about love and life and who are still a mystery to me till date. There are the gold diggers and the bargain hunters. There are also the very humble and very naive ones who knows little or nothing about how to defend and preserve love after they have won it.
I believe that love itself is a priceless treasure that whoever finds will do all to preserve and defend. The wound and hurt of love is the deepest that can ever be inflicted upon a soul. I know my recent experiences and have come to learn a thing or two which have made me wiser. The heart of man is so deep that it is absolutely impossible to fathom out its depth. We were told not to cast our pearls before the swines lest they trample upon them and turn to devour us! True love is a pearl of great price indeed. Those who love deeply hurt deeply as well.
So I believe in what my aunt who loved me so much while she lived said to me. The mistakes I have made in the past of my life has been to lavish my love on those who despise and trample it heartlessly leaving me bleeding to death. If not for the mercy of God I wonder where I would have been today. I know many men and women also whose pain and hurt are never visible. I know also women who have loved so much and got nothing in return from the man but rather was used and abandoned - their love trampled by the heartless among the menfolk. Love is a treasure and when you have so toiled to find it do all you can to preserve it and jealously guard it with all your being. Love is a gift not to be trifled with. Love gives us wings to soar to the highest peaks of life. Love is not a game to be played!
So I have purposed not to give my heart anymore except to the one who truly loves me twice as much as I could. My aunt gave me the counsel because she saw how deep and lavishly my heart has always loved. She kept me safe under her wings during the civil war and knew my nature from my childhood.
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