The volcanic, meteoric, blazing, gasoline fueled, bonfire is much needed - like a vacation from the everyday…it’s exciting and better than any work a day experience with the same ooh, ahhhs and other moans of a climactic sunset over coastal waters or that anthropomorphic mouse and friends serving dole whip…
But the slow, simmer, ember, ash and add a new log is where we live and move and love at the right temperature for a constant - not too cold and not too hot….the temperature that sustains and tempers us within those relationships around us…the flame that draws us closer like moths desiring light and warmth…
I cried through most of the essay. Someone once said “You MAKE the fairytale happen” … you and Sarah are a shining example of what love can be if we adjust with the cadence of life but never let the embers go out. Thank you for sharing your story and infusing hope in this charred heart that it is still possible. ❤️
I agree! TV shows and movies in particular create these ideals of what love is like, how sex should be, what one’s experience of childbirth and parenting will be, how families and partners interact, and the list goes on. And when our experiences do not match these, we feel that we have come up short, that we are missing something vital. The expectations of Valentine’s Day makes it almost a chore for many and a dreaded day for those who are not in a grand romance, who are alone, who will not be receiving chocolates and roses, for those who “sit in a cold room and hold our hands to a hearth long since extinguished”. I had a boyfriend once who faithfully gave me roses on Valentine’s Day, never knowing that I actually prefer wild flowers. I dutifully accepted them as an expression of his feelings. How old-fashioned this tradition is. I would rather that love be freely expressed in more meaningful ways throughout the year.
It is the dying of the “great friendship…. the hidden source of fuel that keeps that warmth alive and thriving”, that slowly extinguishes the flame.
I love the way your prose reads like a bigger and more glorious poem.
Spot on, my friend!
The volcanic, meteoric, blazing, gasoline fueled, bonfire is much needed - like a vacation from the everyday…it’s exciting and better than any work a day experience with the same ooh, ahhhs and other moans of a climactic sunset over coastal waters or that anthropomorphic mouse and friends serving dole whip…
But the slow, simmer, ember, ash and add a new log is where we live and move and love at the right temperature for a constant - not too cold and not too hot….the temperature that sustains and tempers us within those relationships around us…the flame that draws us closer like moths desiring light and warmth…
Desiring the ecstatic & passionate
Longing for longevity & moments plural
Let us stoke that flame
In its given occasion
Let us bask in the comfort
Of the campfire glow forever
Beautiful ❤️
I cried through most of the essay. Someone once said “You MAKE the fairytale happen” … you and Sarah are a shining example of what love can be if we adjust with the cadence of life but never let the embers go out. Thank you for sharing your story and infusing hope in this charred heart that it is still possible. ❤️
I agree! TV shows and movies in particular create these ideals of what love is like, how sex should be, what one’s experience of childbirth and parenting will be, how families and partners interact, and the list goes on. And when our experiences do not match these, we feel that we have come up short, that we are missing something vital. The expectations of Valentine’s Day makes it almost a chore for many and a dreaded day for those who are not in a grand romance, who are alone, who will not be receiving chocolates and roses, for those who “sit in a cold room and hold our hands to a hearth long since extinguished”. I had a boyfriend once who faithfully gave me roses on Valentine’s Day, never knowing that I actually prefer wild flowers. I dutifully accepted them as an expression of his feelings. How old-fashioned this tradition is. I would rather that love be freely expressed in more meaningful ways throughout the year.
It is the dying of the “great friendship…. the hidden source of fuel that keeps that warmth alive and thriving”, that slowly extinguishes the flame.
I'm just now getting a chance to read this...and I am speechless. I feel this in my bones like nothing has ever been more true.