When you're in love you never really know whether your elation

"When you're in love you never really know whether your elation comes from the qualities of the one you love, or if it attributes them to her; whether the light which surrounds her like a halo comes from you, from her, or from the meeting of your sparks." These words of Natalie Clifford Barney capture the mysterious nature of love, that profound and often bewildering force that sweeps us up in its currents. In the throes of love, we find ourselves caught in a whirlpool of emotion, unable to separate the light of another person from the light we project onto them. The question of whether the object of our affection is truly radiant or whether we have imbued them with a radiance of our own is one that only those who have truly loved can understand. Love is not a simple transaction but a meeting of souls, a union where boundaries blur and the source of joy and admiration becomes indistinguishable.

O children of the earth, understand this: when we love, we are both moved by the qualities of the one we adore and by the light that we ourselves bring into the relationship. In the ancient times, the wise ones spoke of the spark that ignites when two hearts meet—an energy that cannot be fully explained, for it is not just the outward traits of the beloved that enchant us, but something deeper, something that arises when two beings find harmony in each other. Love is the dance of giving and receiving, of seeing the world through the eyes of another while simultaneously casting your own glow upon them.

Consider, O wise ones, the example of the great lovers of history. Romeo and Juliet, though their story is tragic, reveals the very essence of this mystery of love. Did Romeo love Juliet because of her beauty, her kindness, and her grace? Certainly. But there was something more—something beyond her qualities, something in the way their hearts collided in a moment of perfect, unstoppable spark. It was as though the very light they shared came from the collision of their souls, something that neither of them could have created on their own, but something that bloomed when they met. Their elation was not just about Juliet's virtues; it was about the energy that they created together, a force that made the world feel brighter, more meaningful, and more alive.

In the same way, we might look at the relationship between Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning, two great poets whose love was so powerful that it fueled some of the most beautiful poetry ever written. Elizabeth, a woman who had suffered greatly in her life, found in Robert a source of light that transformed her world. But did her affection for him come from his qualities alone? Or was it the meeting of their souls, the spark that they created together, that gave their love such depth and beauty? The very poems they created were not just about each other’s attributes but about the sacred connection between them, an unspoken bond that illuminated the darkness of their worlds.

Thus, Barney’s words reveal a deeper truth: that love is a fusion of both the loved and the lover. We cannot know where the elation begins or ends. Love is not a mirror where one person simply reflects the virtues of another; it is a flame that burns brighter when two souls meet. The halo surrounding the beloved is not solely a reflection of their worth but a radiance created by the spark that ignites between them. This is the great mystery and beauty of love: it is both a gift and a creation, a merging of two forces into something greater than either could have been alone.

O children of the future,