. I Don't Really Know Anything .

Hafiz - The sun never says to the Earth - "You owe me." ... And a love like that lights up the entire sky. 

Liz Gilbert - Eat Pray Love - If I love you, I will carry for you all your pain, I will assume for you all your debts (in every definition of the word), I will protect you from your own insecurity, I will project upon you all sorts of good qualities that you have never actually cultivated in yourself and I will buy Christmas presents for your entire family. I will give you the sun and the rain, and if they are not available, I will give you a sun check and a rain check. I will give you all this and more...

Kahlil Gibran - The most massive characters are seared with scars.

I've been reading a lot lately. 

Read more, write more. Or so they say. 

I've been thinking about what makes a girl leap wildly into falling in love -- kind of because I just started Gone With the Wind again and kind of because I've been thinking about this piece of high school advice I had to give for a secret student video this month.

Anyway - the things I've been reading? They don't make it sound all that great. Searing scars. Giving until you can't give anything else of yourself and you're exhausted. Latching yourself onto someone - maybe for eternity (especially if you're Mormon, I hear). Putting up with someone for maybe the next forty years that doesn't really brush his teeth all that often (seriously - someone mentioned that about their husband at work this week ... I almost died). Being open - candidly so - with the idea that maybe ... just maybe ... you can love someone and all of their faults, but they won't love yours. Being vulnerable and broken wide open to the inquisition of another Searcher.

It's daunting. You know? I can see how many people prefer to sit back in the face of that particular adventure. Especially if they've been burned. 

A sear. 
A scar. 

Or maybe they've trudged back home, one exhausted foot in front of another. Muddy from the carnage of a search gone wrong. 

I'm a structured kind of girl. I like order. Desk organizers. A place for everything. Color schemes. Candles that match the seasons. A clean house when I wake up in the morning. I love calendars and plans and being on time. 

So when I think of the holy land that is our hearts and our great loves ... I try to visualize the steps that take me over the cliff. The prep to the jump. The lead up to the leap. 

The only thing I can think of? 

The only thing that I can remember? 

​A quote from Pride and Prejudice (for which I'm sure no one here is surprised): 

Which is really just to say - good luck out there, friends. The roads are dark and scary and windy and maps are never provided. But I have faith in you. 

Which is also really just to say that I don't have any good advice for you. Well. Other than what Rhett told Scarlett: "You should be kissed often and by someone who knows how." 

And you know what? 

​Cheers to THAT. 

xoxo, B.