Goodbyes

"I walked out the door. There's no memory left." ~ Joel

"Come back and make up a good-bye at least! Let's pretend we had one." ~ Clementine

Goodbye is sometimes just as important as hello, though goodbye often goes unsaid, or is rushed, because we all tend to be wary of sentimental exits, and public displays of emotion. But, what if the goodbye you raced through, cutting it off before the real words were expressed, was actually the final goodbye? What if you never see that person again? Or, if you do, it is different between you, distant, awkward, or redefined?

Perhaps you will look back and think "I wish we would have had a real goodbye", the kind with a long, lingering kiss and an honest "I don't want to let you go."

Hello, Goodbye ~ The Beatles

"Goodbye, my love,
goodbye."

Happiness in love

"Why?
Why does what was beautiful suddenly shatter in hindsight because it concealed dark truths?
Why does the memory of years of happy marriage turn to gall when our partner is revealed to have had a lover all those years?
Because such a situation makes it impossible to be happy?
But we were happy!
Sometimes the memory of happiness cannot stay true because it ended unhappily.
Because happiness is only real if it lasts forever?
Because things always end painfully if they contained pain, conscious or unconscious, all along?
But what is unconscious, unrecognized pain?"

The Reader ~ Bernhard Schlink

Love

"All of us have had this experience. At some point, we have each said through our tears, "I'm suffering for a love that's not worth it." We suffer because we feel that we are giving more than we are receiving. We suffer because we feel our love is unrecognised. We suffer because we are unable to impose our own rules. But ultimately there is no good reason for our suffering, for in every love lies the seed of our growth. The more we love, the closer we come to spiritual experience. Those who are truly enlightened, those whose souls are illuminated by love, have been able to overcome all the inhibitions and preconceptions of their era. They have been able to sing, to laugh, to pray out loud; they have danced and shared what Saint Paul called, "the madness of saintliness". They have been joyful - because those who love conquer the world and have no fear of loss. True love is an act of total surrender."

By the River Piedra I sat down and wept ~ Paulo Coehlo