Love left us?

I was chatting with a friend who had a status message which said that marriage is the only war in which you have to sleep with your enemy.

This got me thinking... of course I am married ( no prize for guessing that....) so howz really my married life faring... does this statement has any buzz of truth in it...
and so I reflected on my 1 and a half years of married life and tried to seek some truth in the statement.. but alas.. I could not put a finger on any point in this period which even had an iota of resemblance to what the statement was trying to say...

Although I am a novice in to the world of marriage and the issues attached to it, I can perfectly well say that ours has been a fruitful relationship in which we are friends to each other rather than husband and wife... In which we share a camaraderie which is complete with bonhomie and a jest for life... The thing that really makes our relationship stand apart is the fact that in this short time, how well we understand each other, the small nuances of likes and dislikes... the small things which upsets us to no end... etc etc What I really enjoy in our marriage is the fact that we so love to pull each others legs... over one's mannerism.. one's snobbishness... I think the worst hit has been our Bhanjas whom we endlessly make fun and caricature of....

Long back (during my TISS days) I was reading one of the books by Paulo Coelho. (I think it was The Alchemist... those were the days when I had Devaji who used to be my room mate. Devaji was high on philosophy and enjoyed abstract art and writing. Since that day I have come to love Paulo coelho for his immensely inspirational, philosophical and 'loaded' books on life and consider Devaji as an elder brother and guide).

In this book the author narrates a small fable (I think some middle east fable) where a woman and man gets estranged and divorced. After their estrangement, one day both went to meet a holy man of great renown. The holy man was very famous for his deep insight in to human lives and intricacies of human relations.

They wanted to seek the blessing of the holy man and also to know about their lives more closely.

The holy man chatted for a long time without broaching for even a single moment about their estrangement. They discussed the weather, politics and religion among many other things..

It was long in to the evening and was time for them to leave...

They sough his blessings and were about to leave... Suddenly they heard the voice of the Holy Man from behind " So why did you leave each other" ...
This resulted in a heated discussion by both parties justifying their position and accusing each other of all kinds of vices possible which led to their estrangement...
"But my question is why did you people leave each other" asked the Holy Man in the same calm voice as before... The couple fell silent and remained so for a long time... May be they were introspecting....

A long time ensued and suddenly , as if by divine design, both of them simultaneously spoke out " "We did not leave each other.... but Love left us"

What an irony of life this is.... in real life its not individual who leave each other.. its not lover who fall out because of themselves... its is because at some point in our lives ,the love in our life leaves us... disappears leaving us loveless...

When one looks around one's surrounding we see failed marriages... family breaking like pack of cards... lovers shouting themselves hoarse on how unkind the other person have been...

In such a context how true does the word of the couple sounds even to this day....

"We did not leave each other.... but Love left us"

As I look forward to a happy, mature and fruitful relationship with my companion, my friend and my love... I just wish that Love never leaves us and that we are never left feeling loveless in our entire life.. Amen