Bricks and Feathers

How does one just fall in love?

Is love truly a hole that one trips and stumbles into? While on a lovely walk through the forest of life, does one misstep lead to a rumbling of the ground, a sliding of leaves and branches and suddenly one finds oneself at the bottom of a hole with no way out? The sun's shining in the hole, true, and it's a gorgeous day-- but nevertheless, one is stuck in that hole for, well, forever?

I believe that this is incorrect. With love one is not always aware that one has fallen into it. If one has fallen into a hole it is immediately apparent, and if it is not then one should get one's eyesight and mental functions checked at the earliest convenience.

I propose, then, that love falls on us, though it is not always a ton of bricks falling upon one's head. Oft' love trickles so gently and so subtly into one's heart like a mild summer rain that one doesn't notice that one is in love (or wet) until someone else points it out. "Excuse me sir, but are you in love?" "No, miss, I-- Oh god, I think I am!"

Perhaps love is instead like a predator. Rain and holes are both mostly pleasant metaphors for a very often unpleasant thing. Love can hunt one down and strike when one least expects it-- coming from behind while one's trousers are down and one is half-asleep on the edge of a campsite in the dead of night. Or while picking flowers in a deserted meadow, and love bites one on the foot like a deranged natural ant. Love floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee, indeed.

Is it not, then, safe to assume that no one is safe from love? For while one may hope to avoid rain or holes or predators in one's life, and with careful, cautious living may actually triumph over one of these obstacles, the simple fact of life is that one cannot avoid rain and holes and predators. While walking in a field one may find a path devoid of holes, and so may avoid these. But on the path a predator comes along, and so one scurries up the nearest tree to avoid. Assuming this is a lazy predator with no inclination to climb trees then one is safe. While safe from both holes and predators high up in that tree, one may be certain of one thing: when it rains, you'll be the first to know.