A Favorite Quote

I love quotes, and have many, many favorites. My friend Mary gave me a journal of quotes (that she had started for me) for Christmas when I was a Junior in high school; over the years, I have added to it, and flip through it occasionally, as the pages have become, in a way, old friends. Much like a favorite book.

I came across this quote the other day, and have been wanting to post it, although I don't think I'm quite ready to talk about why I want to post it. Part of it is that I'm too tired to really discuss it, and part of it is that I don't know how to discuss it. I'll let the quote (it's a long one) speak for itself. This is from Standby by Sandy Broyard, and appeared in Real Simple magazine in January 2005:

"In the dim twilight, I often see pairs of Canada geese on the grass near the parking lot. A large reservoir on the other side of a busy road draws them to this suburban area. Today there are three couples. One of the females is eating grass, and her mate is a few feet away, keeping a vigil, on the lookout for any danger. I watched their interaction. It is minimal in its movements, but intense in its awareness, one of the other. When one makes an adjustment, the other notices, and immediately makes a compensatory shift. To an insensitive eye, these changes in direction of the body, of the head, might seem random, but I know differently, for this is a couple mated for life, and I had mated for life, and had known and experienced as one does when one knows that the marriage is for life that the shifts and gestures need only be small. The intimacy of the relationship becomes this fine essence, a distillation of the earlier passion, but just as powerful. In the marriage that endures, there is no need for grandiosity."