Friday, April 10, 2009

Falling In Love (I) Thanks to Kate


And in a sudden he saw her standing there, turning gracefully toward him and he could not speak. For the first time in as long as he could remember, he could not think of anything to say--this man of words was stunned, momentarily, to a profound silence as he looked upon the image of his heart's desire, one of which he had dreamed, knew he'd know, but never hoped to find since such dreams never really come true. And in that image he saw the hints of his future life, the graceful features of the hands of a daughter he would come to know, the deep-set, sad eyes of a son who would grow to be a man, the dark brown eyes of a grandchild who would love a funny man with a white beard called "Grampa."

In the coming weeks and days of their courtship, he continued to be haunted by the feeling that he simply did not know what to say. They conversed, he was funny, she laughed and fell in love. But still, he could not articulate what was in his heart--and then, on the day of their wedding he realized what it was that he wanted to say:

I do.


(image of Dante & Beatrice in Paradise by Amalia Ciardi Dupre, subject to copyright)

9 comments:

Linda Verlander said...

Beautiful sentiments, Greg. Glad Katy could find this one.

Anonymous said...

I agree! What a wonderful reflection on falling in love... Thanks for sharing (again) and thanks to Katy for finding it!

the Atlanta Labbes
Emily, David, Norman & Evelyn

gregorbo said...

Thanks. I'm really glad Kate found it for me too. More soon.

greg

Anonymous said...

Greg, of course I'm right there with you on ALL of this. Dante is so (imagine the sound of Chris Farley) COOOOOL.

And so are you, dude.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, man. Back at ya.

gregorbo said...

That was me, but for some reason it's not allowing me to sign in. Sorry. Greg

Anonymous said...

lovely. and yet, I prefer "I will". Doesn't commitment take an act of the will? By the way, when's your anniversary?

Anonymous said...

Which one of Dante's works is this found in?

gregorbo said...

Anonymous--this post is not from anything by Dante--it's an original and was written some years ago, and transferred here, in tribute to one of my parents' wedding anniversaries and was based upon my impressions, from stories, of their courtship.

gregorbo