I saw a movie tonight that had me in tears when the lights came up.

Like Crazy (stop reading now if you plan on seeing it) is about two people who meet at college and fall in love. It’s love in its purist sense. A love that finds them totally happy and comfortable in each others company.

But they are from different countries and soon visas and rules separate them. The distance conspires against them but their love keeps pulling them back together. They are thousands of miles apart but they cannot forget each other or the love they feel. It is something palpable, real and never from their minds no matter where they are or who they are with.

They marry to be together but bureaucracy soon tears them apart again.  It seems hopeless.

One day, after years of struggle and distance and disappointment, the roadblocks are suddenly cleared and they can be together.

But now it’s too late. They stand in each others arms and the feeling has gone. That beautiful love they shared has disappeared like a piece of sunlight suddenly blocked out by a curtain. All that’s left are the memories of what it once was.

And then the lights came up and I cried.

I cried because I’ve been there and I’m sure many of you have too. I’ve been there in that moment when beautiful love disappears leaving you with nothing but a picture reel of memories.

In that moment you know it doesn’t matter how much you want that feeling back, it’s gone forever. Even now, the desolation I felt at that moment is indescribable. I cannot put it into words.

One girl who saw the movie with me said jokingly, ‘Does that mean we shouldn’t even bother to fall in love because it won’t last anyway?’

She is in a new relationship and very happy so I’m guessing she still believes in love.

But do I believe? Do I still believe in a love that lasts forever, a love that will overcome any obstacle in its path?

I don’t know. Perhaps I don’t believe but I do hope. Is that a contradiction?

I live with the hope of love.

Perhaps that is the true beauty of the human spirit. We will continue on and hope for a new day and a different outcome.

We are optimistic when rational thought tells us that we are mad. We will search sometimes for something that everyone tells us we cannot possibly find. But we will search anyway.

I guess love is the ultimate hopeful search. The ultimate quest. The ultimate treasure hunt.

Some of us will find it for a little while. Some of will find it and it will last forever.

No, I haven’t given up hope.

If you have found love, make sure you enjoy every beautiful and breathtaking moment it brings you.

For everyone else, just keep hoping. You could get lucky.