Happiness is like a flower - Reader's Digest (Essentials Edition I)

Author: Dongfang Xiao / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: When one loses themselves, love arises, and we vanish into each other's emotions, no longer existing as an independent self. — George Sand
On a grassy field blooming with flowers, a young man met a young woman. "Now I realize that I came into this world just to meet you today," the young man gazed at the woman with affection. "I feel the same way, so we were destined to meet." The man and woman embraced and parted.
On some day later, the same young woman was alone on the grassy field, searching, her eyes filled with confusion and unease. The philosopher Thoreau walked over: "Child, you have been searching here for a long time. What have you lost?" The young woman, still searching, replied anxiously to Thoreau, "I am searching for myself. Since that day I met him here, I realized I had lost myself. My laughter arises because of him, my tears flow because of him; a single word from him can lift me to towering heights, a single sigh can cast me into the depths of darkness; my eyes open, and I see only his figure, my eyes closed, and I hear only his voice: It seems I was born for him, and I will die for him. Yet, where am I? I take a moment to search for myself."
Thoreau smiled: "Child, there is no need to search. When love arises, 'I' disappears. You love each other, and you have already vanished into one another, becoming a single whole. Your self can only be found in him, and his self can only be found in you. Regrettably, neither of you exists anymore, so there is no need to search—you have already become a new whole." Just as he was speaking, the young man arrived too, also searching for himself. Thoreau repeated the words above.
"But can 'I' return?"
"Sigh! Who can predict what tomorrow will bring? You have the bright sunshine of today—why worry about the clouds in tomorrow's sky?" Thoreau said.
P28-29