strange and beautiful times

yesterday my former partner of seven years sent me a link to his wedding photo gallery; he got married three weeks ago. it was very surreal. it was hard to believe that we once had a life together. i tried to imagine myself in those pictures with him as his bride and i couldn't. for as much as we were intimately tied, it wasn't meant to be in marriage; i always had a sense our partnership had a beginning and an end.

bill told me last week he loved christi so much that his head hurt (which was cool because strong affect is not one of bill's main personality traits). he told me that being married to the woman he loved made him so, so happy. the pictures document his overwhelmed heart; they tell a story of two people madly in love. it is a blessing for me to see the pictures, to share in the happiness of a very dear friend. it is not sad, because the end of our partnership is not perceived as a loss but as a gain.

it is a rare, remarkable and sweet privilege to experience that kind of love. i believe it's what gives rise to one's desire for beauty and art; it is a human response to the aching for intimacy that is placed within our hearts. to love vividly is to live vividly. congratulations, bill!