Love is forever. At least that’s what traditional marriage vows say:

to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.

And oddly enough, it really is. Whether you stay together, or part and go your own ways, you are irrevocably changed by your time together.

Not just long term intimate partners either, but the friends that come and go as your life progresses.

Sometimes the idea of calling my friends Katy and Toseland makes me smile, because sometimes I can’t remember which friend it was that said or did something that became fuel for my word forge. And somewhat more embarrassingly, not remembering which boyfriend/husband said or did something.

Now and again, I wonder what would be left of me if I could somehow subtract all the people who have impacted me. Would there even be a me? Or would I become tabula rasa again? As Katy once said “Like a lighthouse in a bog – brilliant but useless.”

Perhaps I would lose the best part of me. Perhaps it is the changes (for better or worse) wrought in me by others that are the best part of me.

You can see more of my Haiku here.