Do you know what hurts so very much Its love. Love is the strongest force in the world and when it is blocked that means pain. There are two things we can do when this happens. We can kill that love so that it stops hurting. But then of course part of us dies too. Or we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel.

You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.

Love is illogical love had consequences--I did this to myself and I should be able to take it.

When you like someone you like them in spite of their faults. When you love someone you love them with their faults.

And he leans in so carefully. Breathingand not breathing and hearts beatingbetween us and hes so close hes so close and I cant feel my legs anymore. I cant feel my fingers or the cold or the emptiness of this room because all I feel is him everywherefilling everything and he whispersPlease.He says Please dont shoot me for this.And he kisses me.His lips are softer than anything Ive ever known soft like a first snowfall like biting into cotton candy like melting and floating and being weightless in water. Its sweet itsso effortlessly sweet.And then it changes.Oh GodHe kisses me again this time strongerdesperate like he has to have me like hes dying to memorize the feel of my lips against his own. The taste of him is making me crazy hes all heat and desire and peppermint and I want more. Ive just begun reeling him in pulling him into me when he breaks away.Hes breathing like hes lost his mind andhes looking at me like something has brokeninside of him like hes woken up to find thathis nightmares were just that that they never existed that it was all just a bad dream that felt far too real but now hes awake and hes safe and everything is going to be okay andIm falling.Im falling apart and into his heart and Im a disaster.

The ones who are not soul-mated the ones who have settled are even more dismissive of my singleness Its not that hard to find someone to marry they say. No relationship is perfect they say they who make do with dutiful sex and gassy bedtime rituals who settle for TV as conversation who believe that husbandly capitulation yes honey okay honey is the same as concord. Hes doing what you tell him to do because he doesnt care enough to argue I think. Your petty demands simply make him feel superior or resentful and someday he will fuck his pretty young coworker who asks nothing of him and you will actually be shocked. Give me a man with a little fight in him a man who calls me on my bullshit. But who also kind of likes my bullshit. And yet Dont land me in one of those relationships where were always pecking at each other disguising insults as jokes rolling our eyes and playfully scrapping in front of our friends hoping to lure them to our side of an argument they could not care less about. Those awful if only relationships This marriage would be great if only and you sense the if only list is a lot longer than either of them realizes.So I know I am right not to settle but it doesnt make me feel better as my friends pair off and I stay home on Friday night with a bottle of wine and make myself an extravagant meal and tell myself This is perfect as if Im the one dating me. As I go to endless rounds of parties and bar nights perfumed and sprayed and hopeful rotating myself around the room like some dubious dessert. I go on dates with men who are nice and good-looking and smart perfect-on-paper men who make me feel like Im in a foreign land trying to explain myself trying to make myself known. Because isnt that the point of every relationship to be known by someone else to be understood He gets me. She gets me. Isnt that the simple magic phraseSo you suffer through the night with the perfect-on-paper man the stutter of jokes misunderstood the witty remarks lobbed and missed. Or maybe he understands that youve made a witty remark but unsure of what to do with it he holds it in his hand like some bit of conversational phlegm he will wipe away later. You spend another hour trying to find each other to recognise each other and you drink a little too much and try a little too hard. And you go home to a cold bed and think That was fine. And your life is a long line of fine.

Love cannot be forced love cannot be coaxed and teased. It comes out of heaven unasked and unsought.

What should I do about the wild and the tame The wild heart that wants to be free and the tame heart that wants to come home. I want to be held. I dont want you to come too close. I want you to scoop me up and bring me home at nights. I dont want to tell you where I am. I want to keep a place among the rocks where no one can find me. I want to be with you.

If you cannot inspire a woman with love of you fill her above the brim with love of herself all that runs over will be yours.

For one human being to love another human being that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been given to us the ultimate the final problem and proof the work for which all other work is merely preparation.