I always knew I’d settle down come my fifth serious relationship. I knew this from a dream in which I was walking alone through a desert. Five columns stood in the distance, hazy, mirage-like. The first one I reached – colossal yet strangely intimate – reflected the image of my first girlfriend. Same with the second through the fourth. The fifth column was imageless. I sat down and waited, knowing that I reached my destination.
I dreamed this dream twelve years ago. Twelve years – the number of years I’ve always equated to be a generation. And now here, in the Year of the Everlasting COVID (2020), I remembered my dream, and joining it is a mosaic of memories – both real and imagined – to outline my currency.
I’ve lived wildly different lives via my relationships, and listed below are some essential lessons I carry from them.
1999/2000
Don’t fall for your teammate’s girl.
Long legs are trouble.
Midnight is a magic hour.
Long overland journeys mean little without love.
Young people are gullible.
And fickle.
The pain sucks, but it goes away.
2001
Chivalry is outdated, but not unappreciated.
Cake is a token of love.
Midnight remains magic.
Don’t get too chummy with your partner’s mother.
Materialism isn’t pretty.
Distance dissolves promises.
When all else fails, love the one you’re with.
2002
There’s little more romantic than an abandoned airport at midnight.
Hills untie secrets.
Don’t underestimate how much a television series can dictate a viewer’s reality.
Sundays in bed – the best hours of my life.
Shared visions tumble over differing budgets.
Anger is a sad weapon.
2005
Girls and poems can be the same thing.
Led Zeppelin through South Africa’s Transkei region spells a death knell to reason.
No matter how comfy the bubble, it’s still a bubble.
There is little more life-defining than cheap red wine, lightning storms, birthing cows, and the feeling that this is forever.
It’s not forever.
Love will break your heart.
2009
Love shouldn’t feel like this.
And that’s OK.
I’m cleaning up, desiring different things, slowing down.
And that’s OK.
Love means staying together, even when you’re lost in different hells.
It still doesn’t feel like love. Perhaps that’s the point.
To all those that I’ve loved, thank you.
A beautiuful and honest ode to all. And for all lovers , midnight is always magic 🙂
How lovely!
Felt compelled to dive into my own nostalgia.