“Let us say in passing, to be blind and to be loved, is in fact--on this earth where nothing is complete--one of the most strangely exquisite forms of happiness. To have continually at your side a woman, a girl, a sister, a charming being, who is there because you need her, and because she cannot do without you, to know you are indispensable to someone necessary to you, to be able at all times to measure her affection by the degree of the presence that she gives you, and to say to yourself: She dedicates all her time to me, because I possess her whole love; to see the thought if not the face; to be sure of the fidelity of one being in a total eclipse of the world; to imagine the rustling of her dress as the rustling of wings; to hear her moving to and fro, going out, coming in, talking, singing, to think that you are the cause of those steps, those words, that song; to show your personal attraction at every moment; to feel even more powerful as your infirmity increases; to become in darkness, and by reason of darkness, the star around which this angel gravitates; few joys can equal that. The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves--say rather, loved in spite of ourselves; the conviction the blind have. In their calamity, to be served is to be caressed. Are they deprived of anything? No. Light is not lost where love enters. And what a love! A love wholly founded in purity. There is no blindness where there is certainty.” - Victor Hugo
If you know me, you'd know that I get absolutely and completely obsessed with works of literature from year to year, and this year it happens to be the brilliant novel titled Les Miserables by the wonderful Victor Hugo. This book means the world to me (not to mention the movie adaption of the musical... flawless, entirely, I think) because of the whole idea of it. The running story line wraps itself around the idea of never being enough for God and one of my favorite topics - love. The passage above really speaks to me, honestly. In a world where love is so used and abused, I absolutely engross myself in older novels to figure out what they thought about love when they lived. Dissecting the literature, I ask myself, have the standards changed? Have our spirits wandered away from the original, precious idea of love? When you think about it all, we have completely. Love is so abused and taken for granted. It's such a magical thing, and it is so painful to see where some are in their relationships of "love" ... more so lust, no judgement, just typing what everyone thinks...
Anyway, the beginning sentence of this excerpt speaks wonders to me. To be blind and to be loved on this Earth where nothing is complete is one of the most strange and exquisite forms of happiness. This statement makes me smile. I think he means that to realize that the one you love is not complete, not perfect is very strange... You wonder, why do you love them? They are not perfect. How can this be so? Love is made to be perfect. Isn't it? He contradicts that. He alludes to the Bible in saying that love is blind. If you truly love, it does not matter to you the flaws of the other that you love. It is blind. And this feeling of blindness in love is one of the rarest forms of happiness there is in the world. My heart leaps at the idea of this kind of love, the ability to experience it. This sentence just feels like God is speaking to me. Love is blind, He says. And He is right.
The middle part of this except makes me think. How he talks about the love between the two lovers in the story just amazes me. The man realizes and knows that the woman needs him, loves him with everything she has, will never give up on him... Everything possible for a woman to feel when she is in love the man describes. How on Earth could he describe this? Because he notices... He notices the love his woman has for him and he surely does not take it for granted. He describes it as one of the greatest joys of his life. To have a woman love him with their whole mind, spirit, and heart in the most innocent yet passionate way she can and yet he doesn't take advantage of her. He doesn't hurt her. He enjoys every second of it. I absolutely love that. I love it. It amazes me and seeps into the depths of my heart. It gives me hope that love out there is like that, all you have to do is have faith in your God and know that He will provide. This book is loaded with biblical teachings. It is so amazing. Hugo intends the love he describes to be between a man and a woman, but the love described reminds me of the love to me from my God.
Another quote that stands out to me in this excerpt tells me that love again is just accepting ourselves and our differences. The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves--say rather, loved in spite of ourselves, the conviction the blind have. Happiness in life comes from being loved for who we are. We are loved by God for who we are, who we aren't, and who we will be. We are blind to who we are. Only He knows. Doesn't that just make you happy? It feeds to my passion knowing that no matter who I am, no matter how many people spite me, no matter how many nights I feel low, He loves me. He loves me for who I am. All of it, down to every little detail. That's what I see in that line.
The last quote I'd like to talk about is from the end of the excerpt. Light is not lost where love enters. And what a love! A love founded wholly in purity. There is no blindness where there is certainty. The very first sentence is breath-taking. Your light, your shining light coming from the spirit inside of you, is never lost when true love enters your mind. When you experience true love, you are never lost. You never change. You stay who you are in your entirety. Isn't that what God's love does for us? He loves us so much that we never have to change. We never feel like we need to change to be something we are not. We change to what He wants us to be. We change in the power of His love. A love found wholly in purity... His love is so pure. We can learn so much from the teachings. Pure love does not take away from the spirit. Pure loves fuels your passions, encourages your faith, comforts you just knowing you have this kind of love.
I just absolutely love love. How cliche, but honestly, it is one of the most powerful things a man can show a woman, and the absolute most powerful thing a woman can accept from her Father in Heaven. These words are powerful and I hope they touched you and inspired you like they inspire me :)
Love, Kait.
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