Do you know about Love?

"Ahhh . . ." I exhaled, and smiled at the Caribbean sun warming my limbs and my heart. "This is a good life," I thought as I looked around at the gorgeous beach and the wonderful people with whom I was sharing it.

I opened my eyes to reinforce the beauty and saw, clumsily walking my way as if half asleep, a young white Rasta man with a full beard and long dreadlocks. I didn't have time to wonder before he approached me and said, "Do you know about Love?"

The way he asked it made me pause. I am rarely speechless. "Uh . . . I think so?" I said it like a question.

"Do you know about Love?" he asked again, this time looking directly into my eyes, his piercing with insistence.

"I've been in love," I said, "I think it's really great." I finished like a fool.

"You don't know about Love," he concluded, and looked out over the sea. "If you want to learn about Love, if you want to be enlightened and walk away feeling better than you ever have - come and find me. I will be in my chair by that tree, as I always am." He then turned around and, as abruptly as he had appeared, he was gone.

My friend was the first to break the stunned silence. "Um, what just happened?" she asked, a laugh threatening to break out.

"I don't know . . . but I'm intrigued," I answered. For another three minutes we sat and discussed the possibilities of what he meant (does he want to smoke a joint? was he hitting on me? is he crazy?) while I felt his eyes like a second sun warming my back.

"I'm going over there. I just have to find out." With that, I left my friends and the safety of my beach and embarked upon a spiritual journey that I never expected.

Paul, my Rasta, washed me with a concoction of blue cactus and rainwater, which he had been working on for three days. He explained that he was led to me, and that I was shining already; I would be shining almost as brightly as the sun when we were finished. He taught me about Love - not "love" - and dug into my soul to reveal to me the crimes I had committed against myself.

When we were finished, and I had learned so much, I walked back to my towel and friends, and he returned to his chair under the mahogany. I looked around at the beautiful beach and thought, "How sad, that they have all forgotten about Love."