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What makes something precious?
In the physical world, we call things precious when they have intrinsic value, usually because they are rare or hard to find.
For example, gemstones are considered precious for those very reasons. The birthstones for August are peridot (for the sign of Virgo) and sapphire (for Leo). Both these gems are forms of more abundant minerals: peridot is a type of olivine (a magnesium iron silicate) and sapphire is a type of corundum (a crystalline form of aluminium oxide). Both gems rate very high on the Mohs scale, which measures the hardness of a mineral.
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When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is
to be alive: to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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What a marvelous metaphor for love! Love, it's said, is all around us. Like a mineral, what we might call generic love is (fortunately) fairly prevalent, and useful in so many ways. But when we finally discover our own rare instance of it, that's when it's most precious, a gem to be treasured, especially when it endures (that is, when it rates high on a kind of metaphysical Mohs scale).
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We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant.
You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard
or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it.
~ John Lennon
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Perhaps the most wondrous aspect of love is that it is indeed priceless. We need not be wealthy or privileged to acquire it; we just need to be watchful. It's possible to be so lucky as to have it fall into our laps unsought, but that doesn't happen very often.
A dedicated prospector in search of precious gems will work hard and may take risks to achieve his objective.
So must we ourselves do if we want to find that elusive and most precious thing called love.
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