Natalia Radulova, a pharmacist by education and a journalist by calling, has developed her own successful blog at LiveJournal, writing inspiring stories about relationships, love, happiness and life as a whole.
We at Bright Side just had to share one of her articles. We think it reminds us all how important it is to see our family and loved ones as often as possible, and value them for everything they give us.
’I recently met a nice lady and her brother on a plane on the way back from Warsaw to Moscow. When we landed, they asked me: ’’Do you have someone to meet you?’’ I remembered my husband’s instructions: ’’When you arrive, take a taxi, don’t haggle’’, and shook my head: ’’No one.’’ So, these kind-hearted people offered to give me a lift but warned me that we would have to part ways relatively early on.
At first I didn’t really think about what this little incident meant. But having passed passport control, I realized that my husband hadn’t been kidding about getting a taxi. I was really disappointed, and could think about only one thing: ’’Why hadn’t he met me? Why?’’ And I found myself sitting in my friends’ car. We reached the turn to the Moscow ring road and stopped. It was time to say good bye, as we had to go different ways.
The cars rushed down the road. It was snowing. Dressed in only a jacket, I felt terribly cold. A minute later, I managed to release my right hand from holding the bags to hail a taxi. Ten minutes later, I realized that catching a cab at this point was seemingly impossible. In 15 minutes, I put on everything I had in my bag, and walked along the road.
Eventually, I came across some kind of bus stop, boarded a late-night bus, and finally managed to catch a taxi. And know what? It took me only three hours to get home…Having entered the hall, I crashed down on to the floor like a rag doll. My husband was sitting at the computer, saving the Universe. He couldn’t come up to me but responded to the noise: ’’Welcome home, baby!’’ I was lying on the floor with my arms outstretched and didn’t want to get up. ’’What the hell’’, I thought. ’’What the hell do I do with this guy?’’ I knew everything he was going to say. He was going to reproach me for not taking a taxi and looking for trouble instead. He would definitely assure me that only stupid people would expect to be met at the airport at night when their spouse doesn’t have a car. He would accuse me of looking for a reason to quarrel. I knew all his reasonable arguments in advance and had nothing to say against them. But I felt in my heart that something was wrong.
Only a few months later, I understood where the problem was. I was watching ’’The Osbournes’’ reality show on TV. The mom was trying to make her kids get into the car. They were all going to meet their dad at the airport. The kids grumbled: ’’Why do we have to meet him’’? and mimicking their mother, repeated after her in funny voices: ’’Because we lo-o-o-ve him’’! Then they calmed down, got into the car and allowed their mom to drive them there.
It was then that I understood everything. We meet our loved ones not because they carry heavy bags. We meet our loved ones because we love them. What a great slogan for a good old-fashioned ’’Love is …’’ postcard: ’’Love means meeting your beloved at the airport!’’ We want to make our loved ones happy. Support them. Hug them. And say: ’’How nice that you’re back.’’
After all, I didn’t start a family in order to be told: ’’Take a taxi’’, ’’Don’t disturb me,’’ ’’Don’t touch me,’’ ’’Do it yourself, it’s simple.’’ I created a family because I want to have someone who will wait for me at the arrival hall and look for me among the crowd.
Of course, if we take a sensible approach to the matter, I understand that all these meetings and seeings off are almost always inconvenient, illogical and seemingly not necessary. You shouldn’t go to the airport every single time. The traffic jams are terrible, you’d be better off relaxing at home. Perhaps you shouldn’t visit your loved ones in the hospital every single day, just send them oranges via a courier. We don’t need to celebrate our anniversary. It’s a stupid holiday which is not even worth the money we spend on it. You shouldn’t ’have’ to do anything at all. But despite all that, you still hope that your indifference won’t ruin everything.
Just remember, great relationships really do require hard work. Allowing destiny to take its course when it comes to relationships is totally wrong. Ozzy Osbourne is rich enough to afford a chauffeur — but he’s not the first person Ozzy wants to see when he arrives home. The people we love are much more important. And I want the same. Everyone wants it, actually. But not everyone is ready to do it.
Perhaps those who are too lazy to meet, to listen, to comfort and to please their loved ones, have stopped loving them at all. Or, maybe, they have never known that feeling. I liked how the hero of the film ’’What Is Love?’’ once said to his friend: ’’You think that my wife is too demanding because I have to meet her at the airport. But I want to be there to meet her. And this is the key difference between you and me.’’’
