Captain (whistle)

D38 - No Miming

Intro

Streets In South

Alors Alors

Talking Stage

Violation

Enroute

The older I get, the more I ask myself what "love" is. What is "true" love? Have I "really" loved? Why do we hurt each other more when we love each other? What comes after love? In this song, I've tried to find and describe the essence of love, drawing on classics like Hermann Hesse, Marcel Proust, Rainer Maria Rilke, and others. Much of it reflects my own life and my love life...and I shed a tear or two while creating it! Hope you'll feel and enjoy it!

Love is often spoken of as if it were something that simply happens to us —
a sudden light, a miracle, a gift we receive without asking.
And sometimes it begins like that.
But the truth is that love is not the event that starts a story.
Love is the story.
It is what unfolds after the first spark fades,
after the excitement quiets,
after we discover that the other person is not perfect,
and that we aren’t either.

We think love is found in the moment our hearts open,
but its true depth is revealed in the moments when they want to close
— and we choose to open them anyway.

Love is not the certainty that someone will stay.
It is the courage to stay yourself,
even when everything inside you trembles.
It is the willingness to show your truth,
your fears,
your doubts,
the shadows you carry,
and the light you’re afraid to show.
Love grows where honesty is allowed to breathe.

And if love hurts, it is not because it is cruel.
It is because it demands that we outgrow the parts of ourselves
that tried to live alone.
It asks us to soften where we have hardened,
to listen where we have learned to speak too fast,
to step forward when we want to retreat,
and to hold on when everything feels uncertain.

Love is not a rescue.
No human being can save another from their pain.
But in love, we can offer something far more precious:
a presence that says,
“You don’t have to walk through your darkness alone.”
Sometimes that is enough to help another find their way home.

We do not love with our hearts alone.
We love with our attention.
We love with our patience.
With our forgiveness.
With the tiny choices we make every day
to show someone that they matter.
Love is a thousand quiet gestures
that no one else sees.
A thousand moments of gentleness
in which we let another person be exactly who they are.

Love is not the absence of conflict —
it is the place where conflict is met with kindness.
It is not the end of loneliness —
it is the invitation to let someone near even while we still feel alone.
It is not the promise that two paths will never change —
it is the agreement to walk together for as long as the journey allows.

We lose love when we try to own it.
We strengthen love when we let it live freely.
Two people cannot grow if one must shrink.
Two souls cannot stay connected
if either one is asked to become smaller, quieter, or less themselves.
Love is the space in which both can rise.

And yes — love will challenge us.
It will show us where we cling,
where we fear,
where we hide.
But every challenge love brings
is an invitation to become more human,
more compassionate,
more alive.

The essential truth about love is this:
Love is not something we fall into.
It is something we build.
Brick by brick,
moment by moment,
through the soft courage of choosing each other again and again.

And the miracle of love is not that someone else completes us.
The miracle is that love reveals we were always whole —
and yet still capable of becoming more.

To love is to say:
“I see you.
Not as I wish you were,
not as I fear you could be,
but as you truly are.
And I choose to walk beside you.”

This is the quiet, enduring truth of love:
not possession,
not perfection,
not certainty —
but presence.
A presence strong enough to hold joy,
wide enough to carry sorrow,
and gentle enough to let both people grow into who they were meant to be.

And when we understand this,
we discover something extraordinary:
Love is not what we receive.
Love is what we become.

Captain (whistle)

Nutcase 22