6 things about Love that Maldives reminded me of

There is probably no better metaphor for love, and none more used, than the metaphor of the sea. 

And while I didn't run off to an island in Maldives to forget about a lost love, unexpectedly, this trip reminded me of some six things about love.

1. La mer es muy hermosa. And so is love. If it isn't, would anyone have wanted it?

Beauty wanted with such longing and desperation

2. The sea is mysterious and unfathomable.

Poets and authors have time and again tried, but love, like the sea, is just too vast to be contained in words, no matter how many or how few. Did you say you've experienced love once, twice, innumerable times? Now, you think you are wiser and you know everything there is to learn about love. Well, you're not even close. 

I have loved thrice but while I have been scratched, scarred even, I know I have barely scratched the surface of this thing called love.

3. The sea can be unpredictably rough.

Navigate and plan as they may, the sailors and the fishermen know the journey at sea can be a game of rough and tumble with the waves.

And you might think you are sitting safely inside the ship. Guarded your heart, didn't you? Think again. Once at sea, love can shake you at your core, throw you off course and you find yourself drifting away - just yourself, in the middle of nowhere.

4. Love will never be without risks.

In January 2012, the International Maritime Organization reported 1370 dead/missing persons at sea in 2006, 218 in 2007, 878 in 2008, 259 in 2009, 102 in 2010 and 42 in 2011. These numbers have decreased over the years, yet sea travel is still not exactly the safest mode of travel. 

But even if you're just swimming, surfing, snorkelling or scuba diving, there are so many accidents that can happen - you can drown, be stung by jellyfish, be attacked by sharks and what other sea creatures there are.

There are always risks at sea. In spite of this, people always choose to take the plunge and jump right into it. People always choose to love.

5. The sea gives life and many times, takes it back. But it will always leave behind memories. 

Left behind

Oh, love. Every morning, you wake up inspired. Throughout the day, you live with only the thought of her on your mind. And right before you close your eyes at night, you breathe out a sigh, her name upon your lips.

Suddenly, things change. She doesn't seem to care for you as much. She is almost never there when you need her. And then she leaves without a single word. 

You're left with only memories that you don't know if they're good memories or bad ones, because even the happiest memories tear you up. Until you become unsure: "Am I still alive? Or has she taken away my life, too?"

Oh, love.

6. Love remains elusive.

Fascination turned to love

I might have been a mermaid in a past life. I've always had a fascination for the sea - how its color is sometimes blue and sometimes more green than blue, how its water meets the sand on the shore and laps at my bare feet, how it sometimes brings schools of little fish on the shallow waters and how it keeps secrets of beauty and darkness at its depths.

Ironically, I have never learned to swim. My father tried to teach me when I was so much younger. A couple of friends have tried to teach me, too. 

It has become a chicken-and-egg problem - My fear of the water kept me from learning to swim.  On the other hand, because I don't know how to swim, I am afraid of the water.

And so over the years that passed, I have totally given up on swimming. But not on my love for the sea. 

As it were with love, I always come back to the sea - always approaching it, walking as far away from the shoreline as my short legs and fearful heart can take me. 

Nowella would probably ask me what my takeaway from this soul-searching trip to Maldives is. My takeaway: It is that there are things that will always remain elusive to me - like love and most especially love - but that doesn't mean it is useless to keep trying for it. And if love never works out, and if I will never have it, I need not be sad. It is as it is. Not accepting that fact will only slowly burn out the love that should be above every kind of love - my love for life.

Vacant on the other side