A note of music gains significance from the silence on either side. If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly those moments. I understand why the saints were rarely married women. It has primarily to do with distractions . . . Woman's normal occupations run counter to creative life, or contemplative life or saintly life.
Love is a force.
It is a power, like money or steam or electricity. Duration is not a test of truth or falsehood. Only when a tree has fallen can you take a measure of it. It is the same with a man. I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches.