Thoughts on love from 'By the river Piedra I sat down and wept' by Paulo Coelho

Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere. We simply have to accept it, because it is what nourishes our existence. If we reject it, we die of hunger, because we lack the courage to stretch out a hand and pluck the fruit from the branches of the tree of life. We have to take love where we find it, even if that means hours, days, weeks of disappointment and sadness.

I'd thought that I, as a mature woman, would be able to control the heart of the girl who had been looking for so long for her prince. I'd heard again the voice of the child I had been, of the princess who was fearful of loving and losing.
For long, I had tried to ignore my heart's voice, but it had grown louder and louder, and the Other had become desperate. In the furthest corner of my soul, my true self still existed, and I still believed in my dreams. Before the Other could say a word, I had accepted the ride with him. I had accepted the invitation to travel with him and to take the risks involved.
And because of that - because of that small part of me that had survived - love had finally found me, after it had looked for me everywhere. Love had found me, despite the barricade that the Other had built.
I opened the window and my heart. The sun flooded the room, and love inundated my soul.

For years, i had fought against my heart, because I was afraid of sadness, suffering, and abandonment. But now I knew that true love was above all that and that it be better to die than to fail to love.
I had thought that only others had the courage to love. But now I discovered that I too was capable of loving. Even if love meant leaving, or solitude, or sorrow, love was worth every penny of its price.

Wait. This was the first lesson I had learned about love. The day drags along, you make thousands of plans, you imagine every possible conversation, you promise to change your behavior in certain ways - and you feel more and more anxious until your loved one arrives. But by then, you don't know what to say. The hours of waiting have been transformed into tension, the tension has become fear, and the fear makes you embarrassed about showing affection.

The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us.

Love doesn't need to be discussed; it has its own voice and speaks for itself.

I was no longer cold - I was consumed by heat, the heat of a spark becoming a flame, the flame becoming a bonfire, the bonfire becoming an inferno. I wanted this.
I also knew that from this moment on I was going to experience heaven and hell, joy and pain, dreams and hopelessness; that I would no longer be capable of containing the winds that blew from the hidden corners of my soul. I knew that from this moment on love would be my guide.