January 19

Quote of the Day

In true love the smallest distance is too great and the greatest distance can be bridged.

Hans Nouwens

I come from long-distance parents, and am myself in a long-distance relationship. Well, not so long anymore, now that we share the same continent for a change.

With these long distances comes the considering of time and place in terms of a successful relationship. Considering the importance of seeing each other, hearing each other, touching each other. My mother reminds me every now and then of how they only relied on letters - good old fashioned mail - when in separate countries with my dad, and how this deepened their relationship, and how things are so different in today's world of emails, Facebook, texts, free nationwide calling, not to mention Skype and face-time chats. Yet, nothing replaces the touch of your loved one. Their smell and skin under your palms and close to your face.

I think this is exactly what it means to feel that the smallest distance is too great. The minute you are not one in the physical sense of those words, you feel like something is missing. It doesn't have to lead to tears or heartache or being unable to face the day and even enjoy everyday life. It just means that things aren't as good as they could be.

But, as mr. Nouwens points out, with true love comes the ability to overcome the distance. To still experience closeness regardless of geographical distances. I've experienced this, for example, with my best friend, with whom we see each other a few times a year, and keep in touch almost as rarely..but once we're together, its like nothing changed. Or things did change, but they didn't change us, the relationship we have and the love we have for each other.

True love overcomes even the greatest distance. And most often this is not one that can be measured in kilometers or miles. The greatest distance occurs after a fight. After you said something that hurt the one you love more than you ever intended. After what you said can never be taken back. But with true love it doesn't need to be taken back. With true love even the hurtful, push-you-away words and frustrations can be overcome, because we're all human, and it is this humanness that we love about each other. I don't love you as an incarnation of perfection; I love you for your imperfections, for the little things I can pick on, for the little things that assure me that you, also, can love me even when I would be embarrassed in front of the rest of the world. With you I can be myself in all that I am.

And this is what makes the distances irrelevant.