I laugh out loud as a penguin poses for a few pictures in his black and white outfit before disappearing into the bushes with his mate. The Cape penguin mates for life. I envy them that, since I am also from the Cape area but my first love cheated on me and it all went downhill from there.
It’s a strange feeling that is creeping up on me. That undeniable feeling that something is really, really wrong and that the love is going, going, gone. If love is meant to last forever then why is it so fleeting and what happens to it when it dies?
Oh God please help me not to die with it this time. Let me live to experience a love that lasts forever as the penguins do.
You might say I should have known that the cultural differences between a South African and a Saudi would ask for too many sacrifices. But I would choose this all over again, even in the face of this big black depression that I am travelling through. Experiencing this love has been the greatest adventure of my life. The love is not missing after all; it is simply suffocating in the cultural restrictions that we set for ourselves and the partners we are supposed to be able to accept just the way they are.
My mom says I shouldn’t worry too much about finding love again: “Look at Angelina Jolie,” she says, “she’s also older but she got through a few break-ups and then found love.”
“Yes mom, but she had to steal someone else’s husband.”
If I were Angelina Jolie I would adopt the penguins instead of all of those children. Animals such as these are in more danger of extinction than the human race after all.
Cape Town’s Boulders Beach is part of the Table Mountain National Park and one of the most rejuvenating places to visit in the area. Friendly animals have a way of making one feel ok, even loved no matter who or what you are.
