Peacocks

To quote Disney’s Beauty and the Beast - my personal love story is “a tale as old as time.” It’s deeply personal and fully universal, also. Like each of our lives, there is a beautiful and dynamic story of a life (lives) lived and there are billions of these stories. I’m writing this note on the 17th anniversary of my own love story. Way back in 2008, on a phone call, we decided to “make it official.” We had finished college, where we met, and were living in different cities at the time of the phone call. It was a love story that started long-distance and quickly changed to a love story in New Orleans and on from there. As I write this, we’re celebrating our love story in a castle in Germany on the Rhine River. It’s a storybook setting for a dynamic love story.

peacock pillow at Schonberg Castle

Prior to being here in Germany, we were for about a week in Istanbul together - a city so large and at the cross-roads of so many cultures. So many people in the world live and visit here with different customs and beliefs, foods, languages, and dress. And, we all smile, laugh, cry, etc through our humanness. It’s a beautiful thing to remember, especially when so much of what we’re fed in this world right now is division and heartbreak. It is possible to coexist peacefully in this way.

This brings me to the title of this post…a beautiful and vibrant animal, a regal symbol, and a symbol we’ve gravitated to in our relationship. A bit of a poem below.

tile inlay of peacocks at Schonburg Castle

A poem for 17 years

Peacock feathers

plummed wide,

majestic and vibrant,

the many false eyes,

a protection,

the beauty a sign.

Our homes have been full of peacock iconography

those second-hand paintings

moved from apartment to apartment -

a triptych of peacock

in blue, yellow, and red -

the through-line of our shared life and love.

They wait for us in storage, for the next move home,

we’re reminded of their presence in our lives

here, on this 17 year marker of

shared life and love

in a castle on the Rhine River.

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