The Christmas Symphony of the Heart...

 

Dear Readers,

It was Christmas Eve, but the city hummed with a peculiar energy that felt as if time itself had shifted. Mr. J, a writer whose stories had once painted the skies with hope, now found himself wandering the bustling streets of a city caught between modernity and nostalgia. The winter chill crept into his coat, but he barely noticed it. It had been years since he felt the warmth of love, and tonight, that longing crept back into his chest like an old melody he couldn’t forget.

As he walked past the towering glass buildings, one particular sound caught his ear a song from an old musical, Moulin Rouge!, playing softly from an antique record player in a boutique window. It was “Come what may, I will love you until my dying day”. The familiar words tugged at him, memories of a past that had always seemed so far away.

At that moment, a woman stepped out from the crowd, her eyes reflecting the shimmer of Christmas lights. She was everything he had never known he needed radiant, confident, and impossibly familiar, as if she were a vision from a forgotten dream. Her name was Magnificent as of an Angel who Mr. J had loved a lot.

“Mr. J,” she said as if she had been waiting for him all along. It was a name that felt like a key unlocking something he didn’t realize he’d locked away. They had met long ago, in a fleeting moment at a bookstore that had closed down after a terrible Storm. He had been there buying books to fuel his passion for storytelling, and she, laughing over a line of poetry, had caught his attention with an effortless grace. That day, he’d thought she was the kind of woman who could make a writer's heart beat with purpose. But life had swept them apart before the chance could blossom.

She reached out, her fingers brushing against his. “I never stopped believing in the music of love,” she said, her voice a whispered promise.

Mr. J took a breath, the Christmas lights twinkling like stars around them. “Love is a many-splendored thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love!” The city seemed to hold its breath as he spoke, the words feeling like they had been carved into him through years of longing.

“My Dear, I know seasons may change, winter to spring, but I love you ‘til the end of time,” he said, a rare smile breaking across his face. The past year had been bitter with solitude and unfinished stories. But in her presence, the memories of old songs and forgotten promises turned into something new a second chance. The music played on, a soft, unspoken acknowledgment of their past and a hopeful testament to their future.

She leaned in, their faces inches apart. “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return,” she said, a twinkle in her eye. And as snow began to fall, Mr. J whispered, “Believe in truth, beauty, freedom, and above all things, love.”

The world resumed its rhythm, the lights twinkled brighter, and in that moment, love returned to the city, to Mr. J, and to that beautiful Angel. A love that had never been forgotten, only waiting for Christmas Eve to bring it back.

Reflection:

Looking back, Mr. J realized how much of his heart he had kept locked away. Life had been harsh, and the idea of love had often felt like a cruel joke. Yet in the moments when he least expected it, he was reminded that love isn't bound by time or circumstance. It's a force that can rise from the quiet, sometimes even from the ashes of our broken dreams. It’s a lesson he had learned from his past, and now, standing with the Angel he loved, he understood it completely: Love is not just a fleeting emotion. It's a promise. A truth that endures beyond what we see.

In the simplicity of the Christmas season, amid the quiet hum of city lights and soft music, Mr. J discovered that the greatest gift of all wasn’t just the love he’d been waiting for it was the love that had never left, patiently waiting for him to open his heart once more. The world may change, and seasons may pass, but love, in its truest form, remains timeless.

Audrey Hepburn: "The best thing to hold onto in life is each other"

Jacob M