What Have You Done for Love?
One Canadian reader answered: “At the age of 15, I met a Turk online. We fell in love and I married him under an Islamic contract. It was a passionate and intense relationship. We understood each other with all our quirks and we created a safe environment for each other. We alternated visiting each other regularly for 4 years. I got to explore Turkey and that sense of novelty and freedom added to the emotional intensity of our relationship. He was 6 years my senior.
Our ivory tower was soon destroyed by the realities of life: citizenship, religion, logistics… We were comfortable with our romance but everything outside of it tore us down. I was a young, stubborn idealist and my naivete and immaturity ended our relationship. If only I was a bit wiser at the time…
A few years later, I converted to Islam. I married a man 11 years my senior with an almost opposing personality. It was not love but a rational decision to marry in order to complete half of my religion. I have 2 children from him and we live in Yemen. I sometimes I miss the love and passion I had with the Turk, but my current husband provides stability and a nourishing environment to raise healthy children.
As a person who thrives on connecting on a deeper level with people, this relationship has not been easy. However, my first love showed me the depth and potential in loving another, and the dangers of our shadows projecting unto another. It made me wiser, and I’m hopeful that a more mature and healthy love can be found again, perhaps at another junction in my journey.”
Another Canadian wrote of an affair: 
“Thirteen years ago I fell in love with my neighbour. He told me he loved me and that was it – I was hooked. I was married with two small children and so was he. On New Year’s Day, after four months of passionate sneaking around, we told our partners we had met our soul mates and we were leaving.
24 hours later, after threats from his wife, he called it off.
My husband came to where I was, picked me up off the floor and whisked me off to a hotel where he held me while I wept in anguish at losing what I thought was the love of my life.
What I did for love was stay with my husband. I realize now, after 22 years of marriage, soul mates are the stuff of fairy tales and his love is the stuff of life.”
I wondered how those 2 families managed to be neighbours after that, and the reader answered me thus: “He moved a year later. Thank God. My husband and I are still in the same house though. We laugh about it now.”
Wow! Thanks for the stories guys!
To participate, please read “Love and You” and share with us- everyone has a love story. Or two.
