beautiful young women

beautiful young women
by dr. cleopatra abdou (inspired by corey d. seaton)

january 5th, 2009

Beautiful young women,
let me tell you what happens.

Here’s what happens:
you see these images of love,
you dream of love,
you imagine love,
you hope for love,
you will it to be love,
you do all kinds of
not-so-smart
things for love,
make all kinds of
downright bad
choices for love.
And these never put love where it never was
and never was
meant to be.
And these never bring love sooner
or closer
or more like you imagined it.

And
still
you feel on the inside
and show on the outside
to be without the love
it seems only natural and normal to have.
And worse
maybe you suffer in all kinds of ways--
irrevocable and not--
that you wouldn’t have
had you not made all kinds of compromises
in exchange for
what you thought
would be
love.

And so you suffer
maybe just once,
maybe once a month;
but finally you learn.
You learn your worth.
And you learn,
if not
what real love looks like,
then at least what it does not
look like.
And you decide that
no more
will you give yourself to anything else.
And you let go a little.
And then one day
when you’re not even paying attention,
and you’re much too busy to notice it,
and you are way too happy and too vibrant to be looking for it,
just like that--
real love comes
just strolling down the street.

And it is not perfect,
but it is
absolutely
perfect for you.
It is so much more than you ever dreamt,
than you ever could of imagined,
and certainly than you were beginning to suspect realistic.

And it’s easy.
So easy.

There’s no drama.
There’s no wondering,
there are no games,
no calculations.
There is no fighting,
no kicking,
no screaming,
no willing it to be,
no deals with the devil
(and not just because there is no devil in the Creator’s beautiful Universe).

It just is.

Just like when it wasn’t love
and nothing you could say
or you could do
would make it be love;
when it is love,
nothing you can say
or do
will make it stop being love.

So you can go ahead and be yourself.
Go ahead and love yourself.
Go ahead and exhale.
Go ahead and shine.
Go ahead and use all that
previously wasted and scattered
energy for good;
your betterment and others.

Beautiful young women,
can you hear me?
Do you really have to learn this the hard way
like all of us before you have?
What can we do to show you,
to help you listen,
to help you see,
to help you understand?
So that your suffering will be small.
And your love will be big--
the defining factor of your life;
not your heartaches.

Beautiful young women,
we--
your sisters, your girlfriends, your mothers, your mentors--
we love you.
Let us lead you to love.

All you beautiful women--
young and grown--
let’s help lead our sisters, girlfriends, mothers, daughters, and mentors
to
not away from
love.