An extract from Captain Corelli's Mandolin;

'Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanos, then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots are so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part.

Because that is what love is.

Love is not breathlessness. It is not excitement. It is not the promulgation of eternal passion.

That is just being in love, which any fool can do, love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both Art and a fortunate accident.

Those that truly love, have roots that grow toward each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree, not two.'




...because love is what it all comes back around to, isn't it?

We all have to learn to love, because really, there's nothing in our culture that teaches this very basic lesson. Its only the volcano, the flowers we see presented to us in most of popular culture.

My partner Mark and I ask eachother one simple question each and every year, often around Solstice or one of the other Quarter or Cross-quater holidays, and it is this:

"Will you go around the sun with me again?"

I pride myself that my asking has never yet been a glib one, and though I think I know the answer, I ask in ernest, not taking that answer for granted.

Joyous Light Return to you all my brother-sisters & sister-brothers!