Thursday Thoughts...

If self is a location, so is love: 
Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points, 
Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance, 
Here and there and now and then, a stance. 

Seamus Heaney

I spent some time savouring this quote - letting the language roll over me, softly and gently. I often think about how the people we love are marks on our maps of our selves. How they anchor us and let us know who we are and how we are in relation to other places, people and things.

And how, when we lose them we are untethered...unsure of our place in the world, until we establish new markers and guide posts.

I think there is probably a bit of a wry description of love here - starting with the bearings taken. Isn't that how it always starts? Finding the true and cardinal points and exploring options.  Then occasionally dug heels and distance.  And often then a stance...

We do take positions with regard to those we love - and I often think families can be very good at solidifying roles and characters. Positions established in childhood can still remain 50 years later!

But oh, just to think about love being a location, from which we take bearings...