Mariana

by Susanna Kearsley

If you don’t go looking for the lessons of the past, then the past will come looking for you.”

“The past can teach us, nurture us, but it cannot sustain us. The essence of life is change, and we must move ever forward or the soul will wither and die.”

“Grab you your happiness with both hands, Mariana,” she advised, her lip trembling, “and hold it tightly, for you cannot tell when you might lose it.”

“Feel that, love. There’s nothing can break that. We are two parts of the one whole, you and I. The hawk mates for life, and our lives are but beginning. Faith,” he said, smiling, “d’you think I’d let a little thing like the grave come between us?”

“It’s too easy, you see, to get trapped in the past. The past is very seductive. People always talk about the mists of time, you know, but really it’s the present that’s in a mist, uncertain. The past is quite clear, and warm, and comforting. That’s why people often get stuck there.”