“Eros, the God of Love, emerged to create the earth. Before, all was silent, bare, and motionless. Now all was life, joy, and motion.”
———-Early Greek Myth.
Several beautiful children were born to Aphrodite and Ares. Eros, their little son, was appointed God of Love. Although nursed with tender solicitude, this second-born child did not grow as the other children do, but remained a small, rosy, chubby child, with gauzy wings and roguish, dimpled face. Alarmed for his health, Aphrodite consulted Themis, who oracularly replied, “Love cannot grow without Passion.”
———-Later Greek Myth.
From the book “Love And Will” by Rollo May.
Since my bereavement, I have searched for the next passion that could fill the void that the absence of a wife of forty years creates in a man’s life, particularly when, other economic or social activity does not appeal to the sense of the aesthetic in me. The search has been a daunting one, as the problem is a combination of the physical absence and the essence of an intense relationship.
Don’t however get me wrong, I am not looking for passion of the amorous kind. That was not the point of the relationship anyway. I am talking about getting passionate about something in the sense of the following definition of the word –“a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything: like ‘a passion for music’.” Unless I find that, how do I close that first love and passion? How do I find that next love?
The older and minor passions of reading and pursuits spiritual have been intensified, but there is nothing quite like the passion that a loving relationship generates. So, what do I do to get out of the often experienced “whymeitis”?
This musing is a futile exercise as it is like searching for the coin where the light shines, instead of where it fell!
I just realized that I do not have to search anymore, because, I already have it. I had simply not recognized it. Like a habit, it had simply taken over my life.
I am of course talking about blogging. Writing my own posts, reading other posts, commenting on them, responding to their responses, responding to the comments on my posts, finding new bloggers, changing the blog world relationships to personal ones through email, instant messaging, Skype and other PC to PC phone connections and so on.
It has been a fantastic journey and the more I get involved, the more I am enjoying the experience. The joys of the banter and discussions in Jean’s two blogs; Grannymar’s daily dose of humor and/or wisdom; the incredible range of topics in Conrad’s posts; travelogue and photographs of Mike; runnathons and butterflies of Looney, Ashok’s metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a butterfly, Lizwi’s South African perceptive; the amazing range of emotions that Delirious can evoke; and the list goes on and on. Moreover, there are some magnificent people, who do not post blogs, but who regularly comment and bring joy and wonder into the blog world – people like Bikehikebabe, Gail, Maynard, and Diane who takes my heart away with her Namaste.
What more can a man ask for? It is this, this wonderful world of bloggers and commentators, that have enabled me to survive for over a year as a blogger and in the process earn a PR of 4 from Google! I have been able to post 277 posts, elicit 3248 comments and generally enjoy myself thoroughly.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank all of you wonderful people who have stood by me and my blog and enabled me to discover my passion. Please accept this post as my tribute to all of you, those who have been mentioned here, and those who have not. If I write about every one of my blog friends, my post will run into two more pages, so, I seek the forgiveness of those who do not feature on this very brief list of regular readers of my posts.
The title for this post should perhaps read as Life After The Death Of A Spouse. It would not however grab the attention that this one would, would it?