Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joythe experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.

And all I loved I loved alone.

I want love to conquer all. But love cant conquer anything. It cant do anything on its own.It relies on us to do the conquering on its behalf.

He suddenly recalled from Platos Symposium People were hermaphrodites until God split then in two and now all the halves wander the world over seeking one another. Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost.

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. Write for instance The night is full of stars and the stars blue shiver in the distance. The night wind whirls in the sky and sings. I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. I loved her and sometimes she loved me too. On nights like this I held her in my arms. I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky. She loved me sometimes I loved her. How could I not have loved her large still eyes I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. To think I dont have her. To feel that Ive lost her. To hear the immense night more immense without her. And the poem falls to the soul as dew to grass. What does it matter that my love couldnt keep her. The night is full of stars and she is not with me. Thats all. Far away someone sings. Far away. My soul is lost without her. As if to bring her near my eyes search for her. My heart searches for her and she is not with me. The same night that whitens the same trees. We we who were we are the same no longer. I no longer love her true but how much I loved her. My voice searched the wind to touch her ear. Someone elses. She will be someone elses. As she once belonged to my kisses. Her voice her light body. Her infinite eyes. I no longer love her true but perhaps I love her. Love is so short and oblivion so long. Because on nights like this I held her in my arms my soul is lost without her. Although this may be the last pain she causes me and this may be the last poem I write for her.

Did I really want to stay on this road longer knowing it was only going to end in devastation

You dont take away my choices. You are my choice.

recant v.I want to take back at least half of the I love yous because I didnt mean them as much as the other ones. I want to take back the book of artsy photos I gave you because you didnt get it and said it was hipster trash. I want to take back what I said about you being an emotional zombie. I want to take back the time I called you honey in front of your sister and you looked like I had just shown her pictures of us having sex. I want to take back the wineglass I broke when I was mad because it was a nice wineglass and the argument would have ended anyway. I want to take back the time we had sex in a rent-a-car not because I feel bad about the people who got in the car after us but because it was massively uncomfortable. I want to take back the trust I had while you were away in Austin. I want to take back the time I said you were a genius because I was being sarcastic and I should have just said youd hurt my feelings. I want to take back the secrets I told you so I can decide now whether to tell them to you again. I want to take back the piece of me that lies in you to see if I truly miss it. I want to take back at least half the I love yous because it feels safer that way.

I mean at the end of the day what the hell does it matter who I end up with if it cant be you

Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved that means we havent loved enough.