Hello friends,
This post is part of the serialization of a book I wrote How to Cure a Lonely Heart: A Poetic Guide to Falling in Love. I wrote the book to be a simple tool to bring two people together in love. You can read the first section here to learn more about it.
This section is called “To Know Another”, and is a series of poems and questions that form a framework in which two people can learn each other’s viewpoint on six integral subjects: Divinity, the Self, Others, Love, Heartbreak, and Joy.
These are amorphous topics and so the framework is meant to be the foundation of an amorphous conversation. These are not yes or no questions. Their intention is to offer a pathway into someone’s soul; their experience and their emotions on an important element to relating. Read the poems together or separate, aloud or privately. Then, come together in real time to let their corresponding question inspire the conversation you want to have. This practice can be done with family, friends, or lovers although there will be questions that don’t apply to every group of that list. You may think you already know the answers to the questions. But I believe the conversations are worth having again anyways.
There is no wrong way but the untruthful one. To know another is a privilege: a blessing and a responsibility. When someone lets you into the most private corners of their experience they hand you a glass sculpture, a beautiful fragile avatar of their soul. Once broken with betrayals or abandonments, it can be mended but will never truly look the same again.
I suppose that’s why sharing the truth of ourselves to another person is so intense and frightening at times. We’re handing someone the tools to harm us in the most profound and lasting ways. But the opposite is true as well. We’re gifting someone the chance to appreciate our divine humanity and to contribute to its beauty through growth. It’s the only way to feel unalone in this existence. And it’s the only way to fall in love.
As this holiday seasons comes into bloom, so to do our highest emotions. Let the time of reflection be one of peace and understanding. You are brave and bold and infinitely lovable.
-Vic