I willingly decided to take a free but not so free course given on Love at Life University;  ironically the Professor name was also Love.  I’ve been taking this course for over 15yrs,  compared to some of the students I’m considered to be a newbie. Some have been taking this course before I was born, People from all over in all ages enroll in this course. At times it seems like it was just yesterday I signed up for the course, I guess its because it keeps you busy, thinking,  its fun, its hard, easy,  it keeps you laughing and crying you feel very much alive when you are in class.

This course is very different from most courses taken at any typical University its a life long course that has many levels  you can start at an high level and then move on to a lower level. The levels are not numbered its just that some are more complex than others and the teacher decides when and what level you move to. At any time you can drop the course, but its like a Magic Dragon once you take the first (Puff) course it keeps you wanting to (Puff) learn more, you find yourself coming back for more.

Some of the exams given by Love requires deep analytical thinking then other exams are so simple actually too simple you think that maybe its trying to trick you. I’ve learned that I must agree to receive whether willingly or reluctantly to the lessons and lectures that are given this makes it easier to move to the next level.

Recently I asked the Teacher if I could just move on to the next level, because the current level I’m on is becoming drawn out and redundant I felt like I was ready for the next level, I was curious about what was next I was so hungry to learn more and I had felt that I was doing so good I could tackle anything and everything. The teacher replied in a riddle “I still give you milk, not solid food , for you are not yet ready for it.” I didn’t understand what the Teacher was saying. The very next week I was given an exam and I failed miserably. I sat at my desk and looked at my exam with tears in my eyes thinking I will never understand what Love is trying to teach me as tears smeared the F that was written in red on the paper. I wanted to give up on Love turn in my books, burn my notes, and drop the course completely.  I looked at the red ink running on the paper and it looked like the word Faith had smeared across the paper.

At that instant, Professor Love walked up behind me and said another riddle to me, “when a seed is planted and watered does it mean that the seed will grow”? I looked at Love inquisitively. Professor Love then said, ” If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

“  Remember this my student Remember.”

For some mysterious reason I feel like this course has become apart of my life it is my life and I won’t give up on it if I do I will be giving up on myself.