August is the month to be, really! It happens to be that an email landed up on Fred’s desk, lighting things up for him like never before. Also, read how love never really ends with the end of a relationship. Hop on…

When in pain, you generally tend to gravitate towards people who have been there, done that. You have this feeling that if you connect with people who went through the suffering themselves and recovered, you feel rejuvenated. Remember how you could pour your heart about love woes to the friend who’s been through a heart break? I realized this fact again when Fred received an email from a friend whom he lost touch with. This old mate wrote to him and did more to his spirit than all of us together.

Fred told me that this friend of his suffered from the same illness that has laid Fred low over these months. But, this friend fought it out and was a survivor. Fred is obviously more optimistic about being up and about after reading this friend’s email. He’s living across the pond now, so he can’t pay Fred a visit. But I think he did his job! Fred looks much more fresh and optimistic these days. Hope, as they say, is contagious.

After messing things up with his misguided zest about love quotes, Adrian wants to make up for lost ground. He’s planning a sort of a hoax on Cathy. Confused? Well, so is Adrian! But his basic plan is this. He wants to tell Cathy that he wants to take her out on a movie date, to be followed by dinner. You know, one of those safe dates that couples go out on. Nothing imaginative, nothing that can create unhealthy ripples. At this point, Adrian wants to pack in a twist.

In reality, he wants to deviate from his plan completely. As Cathy would be expecting it to be just another date among many, he wants to surprise Cathy with an ingenuous date that will leave her gasping for more. Now what he’s going to do to have this effect, he has no clue. But if he can pull it off, it will definitely be the most romantic date he’s ever had. Here’s wishing him luck for his audacious plan!

Henry is a glib talker. He’s very generous with his words and sometimes, as the case is always with such people, shoots over the limit. Such an incident hurt Kate a lot recently. They were chatting on the net when Henry went on one of his verbal overdrives. He made some funny comment about Jeffrey. Now, I know you guys must be thinking that Kate and Jeffrey broke up, then why would Kate feel bad about it? But the thing is, Kate and Jeffrey are still friends. Kate cannot take a slight on Jeffrey for the sake of the times they had together.

“I have the highest regard for Jeffrey, Bob,” Kate told me later, “I just couldn’t take it when he made that awful comment about him.” Henry realized his mistake immediately. He apologized to Kate a number of times, but Kate would have none of it. So he decided to send Kate ‘Sorry’ cards, twice a day, always attaching a nice message expressing his apologies. Kate gave in when she understood that Henry was genuinely sorry. Kate told him that Jeffrey may not be her significant other anymore, but that doesn’t mean she undermines his presence in her life. Henry nodded assent.

Some people touch our lives in more ways than one. They inspire us to become better human beings. Sometimes they take us out of our shell and make us look at the world around us in glowing, vibrant colors. Charlie did something similar to Rachael. She was cocooned in her own world- a world of books, computer printouts and more books. Charlie gently led her by the hand and made her see that the world did not end at the boundary created by the walls of her room. And Rachael, on her part, allowed him to lead her because she trusted him.

All this is not what I’m saying. Rachael told stuff to me the other day when we were trying out Liz’s cheesecake recipe. “I feel very thankful to Charlie, you know,” she told me with a mouthful, “He did more to me than all my friends put together.” Yeah, it is true, really. Sometimes we listen and follow more when the person talking to us is all the more close. Love builds up that trust and that trust makes us follow someone. And before we can give it another thought, our lives change.

Here’s a Zen quote by Walter Anderson that says it best: “We’re never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy.” What would you say to that?