Browsing: Love

“If it comes, it comes; if it does not come, no process of reasoning can force it. Yet it transforms the value of the creature loved.

At its best, a close relationship is a partnership of mutual nourishment — a portable ecosystem of interdependent growth, supported by a network of trust and tenderness. It profoundly changes a person and yet helps them become more authentic as assumptions give way to presence and issues are transformed into open connections. In his slim and remarkable book Twice Alive (public library), poet, geologist, and translator Forrest Gander uses inspiration from the natural world to create a poetic “ecology of intimacies,” honoring lichens’ “extreme frugality in drought” and the “long soft sarongs of moss” as a means “to rediscover the essence of… read article

You are aware that life ends in death and love ends in loss. Still, you see the beautiful afternoon light shining on the face you love, knowing it will soon fade, and the beloved face will also fade someday. But still you love, because life is short but meaningful, and love connects the impossible and the eternal. I ponder this and a part from Louise Erdrich’s 2005 book The Painted Drum (public library) comes to mind: Life will break you. Nobody… read article

“Our task at midlife is to be strong enough to let go of the ego-driven desires of the first half and open ourselves to a greater wonder.”

“At middle age, our job is to be strong enough to let go of the ego-driven concerns of the first half of life and be open to a greater sense of wonder.”

How to woo like an artist, or what the overuse of the dash has to do with finding the muse.

Reverse-engineering serendipity, or ice skating collisions have to do with fish market romance.

Artist Lauren Redniss tells the remarkable story of Marie Curie using an early-20th-century cameraless photographic technique and vintage typography from the NYPL archive.

Since the dawn of humanity, one question has occupied the minds of scientists and poets alike: What is love? Here are 5 intelligent attempts to illuminate the age-old inquiry.

A look at the intricate ways in which our neurochemistry deceives us and often leads us away from love.