[A]s though mindful of the wife of Lot, who looked back from behind him, thou deliveredst me first to the sacred garments and monastic profession before thou gavest thyself to God. And for that in this one thing thou shouldst have had little trust in me I vehemently grieved and was ashamed. For I (God [knows]) would without hesitation precede or follow thee to the Vulcanian fires according to thy word. For not with me was my heart, but with thee. But now, more than ever, if it be not with thee, it is nowhere. For without thee it cannot anywhere exist.
Héloïse d'Argenteuil, The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse
abandonment, celibacy, convent, dignity, following, grief, integrity, loneliness, love, men, monastic-life, sacrifice, self-abandonment, self-abnegation, shame, subjection, trust, women