Notes from the Banks of the Elbe

A short love story.
The fiery beginning of a passion, and the slow fading of its embers beneath the ashes.

The place where our story unfolds is a city. But its a city where this love story is carved into its streets, and no matter how hard you try, it refuses to disappear.

I think there is no concept as contradictory as love. How can existence and absence live at the same time? Perhaps love is one of the most abstract examples of Hegel’s dialectics. It is a rare room where pain and healing are inseparably intertwined, where loneliness and togetherness sit at the same table.

Love is a medicine that has the power to both heal and sicken a person. Yet it is also the inspiration that has made people write endless songs, poems, and novels throughout history.

The only thing I truly believe in is its existence. Even if it is not directed at another person, if you are not in love with nature, with animals, or with the things you dedicate your time to, what taste does life really have?

If you are not in love with the warmth of a sip of coffee sliding down your throat, with the scent of wet soil after rain, with the warm embrace of the sun, can you really say you are alive?

Seagulls are flying.
A branch stretches toward the sunlight dancing on the surface of the river.

Part of me thinks about how beautiful it would be to come here with him, while another part of me feels the quiet peace of simply being here alone.

Life goes on. Even though I know it will eventually pass, some moments keep replaying in my mind like a stuck record.

As if refusing to accept his absence, the scenes return again and again:
the way his eyes curved when he laughed,
the smile he wore when he teased me,
the warmth of his cold cheeks between my hands when he appeared at my door,
how he would take my hands and slip them into his pockets,
the softness in his voice when he spoke to me,
the way he reached out his hand when we were about to go somewhere together.

We were supposed to go to so many more places together, remember?