The Nightingale

If love is a disease, I suppose I’m infected.”

She wanted to remember him for as long as forever was.

“If times were different, I’d make you chase me,”

Wounds heal. Love lasts.
We remain.

“We will remind each other, oui? On the dark days. We will be strong for each other.”

“It’s not forgetting we need, Vianne,” he said, leaning down to kiss her. “It’s remembering.”

If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.

I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.

. As I approach the end of my years, I know that grief, like regret, settles into our DNA and remains forever a part of us.

April 9, 1995

The Oregon Coast

If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are. Today’s young people want to know everything about everyone. They think talking about a problem will solve it. I come from a quieter generation. We understand the value of forgetting, the lure of reinvention.