A Glimpse of True Love: Lessons from a Stranger

You know, it’s when the student is ready that the teacher appears, and sometimes, the best teachers you’ll ever have in your life will barely have to say a thing—a brief encounter with a stranger that will change the rest of your life.

I’ve always been a hopeless romantic, but after coming out of a long-term relationship where love seemed to fade into resentment, I had started to believe that people stayed together more for comfort than for love. That maybe the kind of love I had always dreamed of was just that—a dream.

Then, on a quiet train ride, I saw them. An elderly couple, acting like teenagers high on love.

There was something magnetic about them. Their presence was radiant, as if love itself had taken form.

They'd just gone on their midweek adventure, lunch with old friends in the city, and were heading back home. She had the brightest eyes, filled with pure joy, peace, and contentment—something I hadn’t seen in a long time. He still looked at her as if it was the very first time he had ever laid eyes on her. She laughed at every single one of his words, and when she rested her head on his shoulder, it was with the kind of tenderness that spoke of a lifetime of devotion. It was as if he had made it his mission to protect her, to make her laugh, to worship her.

At first, I was mesmerized by their love—it was what stood out to me the most.  I watched them with admiration and aspiration. This love was pure and contagious. They had found what some spend their whole lives searching for, what others don’t even believe exists, and what some have touched once, only to understand later what they were holding.

True love. The kind you only read about or see in movies.

And yet, it was right there in front of me. A divine, sacred union.

It gave me hope—that true love doesn’t fade with time. That with the right person, it only grows stronger.

But as time passed and I reflected on that moment, I came to see that what truly captivated me wasn’t just their love. It was her.

The light she carried in her eyes, a spark of the source.

She made me realise that to have a love like that, you had to be a love like that. That the kind of love I yearned for wasn’t something to chase or find—it was something to embody. And part of me dares to believe that, in that fleeting moment, I caught a glimpse of my future self, or at least, the woman I aspired to become.

I didn’t ask them how long they had been together, but I could tell from the intimacy they shared that their love had spanned decades. My romantic heart would even dare to say that it had spanned lifetimes.

I had felt lost in the darkest night, and like a lighthouse, her light showed me the path back home. Back to me.

So if you ask me who I want to be when I grow old—that’s it. I want to be like her.

Radiating love effortlessly, illuminating the way for others simply by being.