Article October 23, 1989 Issue

Looking for someone to love?

We trivialize love if we think it involves only particular people or takes just certain forms.

Elaine R. Follis

All you need, if you believe certain popular song lyrics and romantic novels, is to find that special someone, that once-in-a-lifetime love, and you'll live happily ever after. Well, I hadn't found "him," but I was a happy career woman.

One day, as I was returning from a vacation, it struck me that probably no one would really care if I didn't come back at all. I had friends, but because we led essentially separate lives, none of them was likely to miss me for very long. Someone else could easily take up my professional responsibilities. My personal possessions could belong to anybody. Suddenly I felt very much alone in the world, and I kept thinking, What I need is someone to love.

This yearning I decided to address through prayer in Christian Science. Why Christian Science and not some merely human expedient to expand my social contacts? Because I wanted a better, truer concept of myself and others; I was seeking an understanding of the God who is Love—infinite, perfect, and eternal—and of myself and everyone as His cherished expression. I wanted to appreciate myself and others for what was true of us— to see each of us as spiritual, complete, the way God made us, not as mortals trying to team up with each other, all of us flawed with weaknesses, fears, and failures.

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