How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?

..The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer is one of the all-time greats and definitely one of my favourite films. I remember, as both a child and an adult, passionately huddling round the TV with my family watching around XMAS time. In fact it was never XMAS until the Sound of Music was aired. For those few who don’t know, it tells the enchanting love story of how a most beautiful, charming, delightful and very talented nun, Maria falls in love with Captain Von Trapp, a retired naval officer. As they get to know each other Captain Von Trapp finally stomachs up the courage to admit his feelings for her and they get married to live happily ever after. But only after the wonderful Maria, frightened of her true feelings for the Captain tried to deny those feelings and runs away from the situation and the Captain, back to the convent from whence she came. I surmise, that if the story had ended there then I doubt the film would have ever been as successful, as it would have been a very sad ending to something that could have been so amazing and special, but fortunately for both Maria and Captain Von Trapp (and of course the children) common sense and true love prevailed. Interestingly the Sound of Music is based on a True Story.

Almost 4 years ago, I met the modern day version of Maria; Charming, Beautiful, Warm, Kind, Intelligent, Creative, Great with furniture rearranging and the list just keeps on going and we embarked on what was to become my most important relationship. In fact, in hindsight I had fallen deeply in love with her from the moment we met. She is, I believe, my soul mate and being with this person was the most incredible time of my life.

Alas, we didn’t have sing-alongs around her open hearth – in fact come to think of it I don’t think I’ve ever heard her sing (and I can’t sing), but what we lacked in musical charm we made up for in other ways and it was, “always great.”

But as I was to find out, sometimes fate holds a cruel deck of cards and regardless how strong the bond is between two people, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we will be physically together forever…well not at that moment in time. In our case the circumstances that transpired were truly horrific and didn’t end until May this year, having imploded in Jan 2010 and it happened, I believe, due to a lack of communication on a sensitive topic and just snowballed. But people make mistakes and the key thing is to rectify those mistakes and sometimes all it takes is a simple sorry or nudge to restart a path with tremendous possibilities and happiness.

The story emphasises the importance of problem solving from the outset and seeing the bigger picture. By talking open and honestly you can express your feelings and so allow the other person/ party to have a better gauge of the situation and importantly by getting things off your chest, you feel better whereas bottling things in only aides in negativity. Of course, sometimes doing so entails overcoming deep rooted fears but once overcome you will be free and can be truly happy and importantly be at peace within yourself.

As the fallible creatures we are, we are always going to make several mistakes in life – some major and some trivial, but acknowledging those mistakes, learning from them and rectifying them is the only way to prevent further adverse consequences and heartache.

Maria isn’t the problem… what she is, is a shining light in this world; and The Sound of Music shows how love can traverse all circumstances and I am hopeful our modern day version will follow suit, but only time will tell... xx

[The follow up article to this is, "I Believe In Angels," http://www.thesarayiahpost.com/MyPosts/2011/12/i.html]