Paying the price for love

I was a pre-teen when I first read the story of the nightingale who gave up its life, in the crossfire of love between a young boy and a girl. The story goes, 'A young man loved a girl very much. This girl had one condition to accept his love. He had to get her a red rose in the deepest shade of red. The deeper the shade, the stronger his love for her. A nightingale who had never found love was perched on a rose bush saw the scene that transpired in front of her eyes and vowed to help him, even though the young man didn't know the nightingale. The rose bush that was the nightingale's hearth loved her very much. The rose bush told her there is only one thing possible to bloom a red rose in that season of white roses. The nightingale had to sing the sweetest song she could with her breast pierced against a thorn of the rose bush at midnight till dawn. The nightingale decided to sacrifice her life and sang the sweetest song she had ever sung that night about the glory of love with her breast pressed firmly but surely against that piercing thorn. At dawn, when all her blood had drained from her body, the most beautiful red rose bloomed in the deepest scarlet. She gazed upon the red rose before she gave up her life in the arms of her rose bush. A few hours later, the worried, pensive young man passed by. He looked at the rose bush and saw the most beautiful rose that he had ever seen. The young man was overjoyed and plucked the rose. A few minutes later, he saw his love coming towards him with her arm around the Mayor's son. He ran to her and presented her with the rose of deepest scarlet. She looked at him with eyes dripping in sarcasm and said, 'Flowers don't make a girl's best friend, diamonds do.' The young man was livid and threw the rose down on the cobble stoned pathway. He walked away without looking back. A horse-cart came clattering down the path and trampled the rose. The rose bush that saw all this was heart broken for the loss of his nightingale who gave up her life to save the young man's love. It withered and died that very day.'
There are many lessons to learn about love from this story. The rose bush never once told the nightingale when she was alive that he loved her very much. If only it had, the nightingale would have been happy to bask in the love of the rose bush for her, than give up her life for another's crush. The nightingale could have waited for love to happen and move her in her own life, than sacrifice her life for another's so called "love". The young man should have realised that you cant do anything that would move someone to fall in love with you. It's simple either we love someone or we dont. The young woman valued wealth over love. Such love is transcient and lasts as long as fortunes do.
There is no perfect love in this world and every heart is but a rose on a cobble stoned pathway. Yet even in this bleak winter called life, love is the spring that brings forth new life in every soul. Bruised and battered we may be, but we must dare to love.