I cannot recall my first kiss, the one that irreversibly marked the end of my childhood years. But I can clearly remember the first kiss, elusive and awkward, with the person I married and brought two children into this world with. It seems like such a long time ago… I can’t stop myself from smiling each time the image rises to the surface of my memory, always so fresh and playful. An email I received from the famed Mykonos Grand Hotel on Mykonos –our favorite destination then, now and I daresay evermore –helped dust off the cherished memory of that first kiss and posed a lighthearted challenge with their Mykonos Greatest Kiss contest. Could we do it? After almost twelve years of marriage? With two children? With the burden of our responsibilities weighing down on our conversations and postponing the simple joys of togetherness and companionship for another day?…
I surf the net. History’s most famous kiss was immortalized through the lens of the great Alfred Eisenstaedt, who had been searching for that one perfect image that would convey the sentiments abounding on V-J Day, marking the end of World War II. It was given by a young, anonymous sailor to an equally young, unsuspecting nurse who nonetheless returned the gesture, perhaps instinctively aware that that simple kiss on that historic day would place her in the ranks of iconic immortals. “I just closed my eyes and kissed him”, Edith Shain would tell journalists for decades following the famous impromptu smooch, for which she gained recognition till her dying day at the ripe old age of 91.
The majority of women respond to a kiss with closed eyes, whereas men tend to do so with eyes open; yet more compelling evidence of the chasm that separates our psyches, yet somehow simultaneously manages to bring us so close to one another.
A kiss is just a kiss; a sigh is just a sigh.
The fundamental things apply
as time goes by….
Moonlight and love songs
never out of date.
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate.
I hum along and make my plans. I’ll travel back to the island that has captivated me and calms me; I’ll give myself over to its warm, familiar embrace and reminisce about that first kiss and the ones that followed. The ones full of passion and happiness. There, facing the setting sun as it caresses the undulating hills of the sacred island of Delos opposite, on the beach of Ayios Yiannis, I’ll hold my love close and feel grateful to Mykonos Grand for giving me reason and opportunity to experience and commemorate this magic moment. Because… The world will always welcome lovers… As time goes by
For more information on the Mykonos Greatest Kiss contest, please visit the Mykonos Grand Facebook page. Give your relationship a magical opportunity!
*As time goes by, from the film “Casablanca”
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