I read “The Path to Love,”  by Deepak Chopra, the first time after a breakup.  It wasn’t just any breakup; no, it was a heart-squooshing, blindsided, out of nowhere, walk-90-miles-a-week just to try to get my equilibrium, if not back, at least, well, not so off-center type of breakup.   What made this even more difficult was the fact that I was truly and completely ready to be in a relationship, probably for the first time in my life.   I had gone through a bunch of really challenging stuff over the several years previously, and realizing that I needed to do some, okay, a lot, of work on myself, and that meant taking a step back from even the thought of dating, let alone a serious relationship.  It took 18 months, but I was ready.  Then I met M, and though my very first impression was, he’s too old for me, after spending approximately an hour or so with him, when we said goodbye, and I saw his eyes for the first time (just so you can understand why it took an hour to actually see his eyes, we met in the dark to walk and by the time we finished, the sun was up), I thought, uh, oh, I’m in trouble now.  I did not, at the time, realize just how prophetic that thought was.

I won’t go into much more detail here now because this post is about a book, and the reason it was so important for me to read when I did.  Suffice it to say that I had gone into this relationship with a completely (COMPLETELY) open heart, and that it truly did make all the difference.  So, after M lost his mind and got his head stuck up his ass, after my heart was thoroughly squooshed, it was all I could do not to slam my heart shut again.  I mean, if this was what happened when I/it was open, why in the world would I want to stay that way?  I did want to, though, and I knew that I had to do whatever it took to keep my heart open.  And that’s where this book came in quite handy.

(Sorry the picture isn’t better.  Deepak’s name is in gold lettering and flash or no flash, it washed out in the photo.)

This book was originally published in 1997, and as with most of the books I’ve been posting about, I do not know how this book came to be in my possession.  I think I had it for many years before I ever read it.  I read it when I needed to hear its message.

As Deepak writes in the final paragraph of the book:  “The love you seek is seeking you at this moment.  Your longing, your deep fantasies about being loved are mere shadows of the melting sweetness that makes spirit want to love you.  Be honest about your seeking, and be alert to the moments when love is showing itself to you.  You are the only means that love has for conquering its opposition; therefore, you are infinitely precious in the eyes of spirit.  The messages of love may not be clear to anyone else around you, even those most intimate to you.  That doesn’t matter; they are meant for you and you alone.  Be assured of that.  And above all, keep looking for clues.”