A good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules.
The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay and swift and free, like a country dance of Mozart's.
To touch heavily would be to arrest the pattern and freeze the movement, to check the endlessly changing beauty of its unfolding.
There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand; only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back -- it does not matter which. Because they know they are partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Gift from the Sea
Photo compliments of mmcarthystudio aka DD#2
Happy Anniversary!!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photo and lovely words.
Aw, happy anniversary!! Blessings on your marriage and wonderful, wonderful family :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful picture -- happy anniversary!
ReplyDeleteAnd what a wonderful passage -- thanks for sharing it. The first time I read anything making that analogy was in Northanger Abbey, when Mr Tilney tells Catherine that he sees the dance as "an emblem of marraige." Such a wise metaphor, and a reason young people should all be taught that kind of dancing.
Thanks, Julie :-)
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying your articles on Imaginative Conservative. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, Kelly!
ReplyDeleteThe more I ponder the quote the more I like it.
Now I'd like to figure out which book it's from.
Happy Anniversary!
ReplyDelete