Because Love Remains: Stories of Life and Timeless Connections

Love is practical, philosophical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, limitless. Love is contradictory. Love is love. This tautology is universal, so true in its simplicity, and so complex in its truth. And so we return to the age-old, unanswered question: What is love?

​Each author in this anthology understands love differently and lives it intensely. These real stories are about real love, the kind you don't see in movies: that shared dance, that big move to another country, that chance encounter, that midlife romance, that heartbreak, that love so unexpected it redefines your identity, that extraordinary, bittersweet, complicated love.

​Ultimately, love is in the details. It is not merely an abstract ideal to be admired, but an action to be practiced, nurtured, and lived through both joys and struggles. These stories remind us that love is not always about grand declarations; love is a gesture, love is every day.

​So, once more: let's hear it for love.

Bethany Zare is a professional French horn player in Symphony San Jose and the Monterey Symphony, as well as a union officer for the American Federation of Musicians based in San Francisco, California.After graduating with a bachelor's degree in music performance from the University of Southern California, she spent eight years playing her horn in Mexico. She is married to Kit Zare, a professional photographer. They own two German shepherds and reside in Monterey.Bethany's first book of poems and art, Pearl's Wisdom, was released in May 2025 and can be found at Halo Publishing.https: //halopublishing.com/authors/bethany-zare/

Roberto Alfaro was born in New York City and raised in the South Bronx, where he lived for twenty-four years before moving to Connecticut to become a Hartford police officer in 1979. He retired in 2000 after twenty-one years of dedicated service in the patrol division, on the recruitment team, in the mounted unit, and as a plainclothes officer. In 2021, he also retired from Quinnipiac University as a public safety officer. Today, Roberto continues to enjoy his retirement by working as a professional model, actor, salsa dancer and instructor, motivational speaker, inventor, writer, and author of several books! He currently resides in Hamden, Connecticut, with his beautiful wife and four children.

Lisa Cassman is an author, speaker, pastor, and life coach. She holds a PhD in clinical pastoral counseling. Residing with her husband, Steve, in Northern Minnesota, together they have raised four boys and are delighted by their twelve grandchildren. Lisa is passionate about seeing people experience God's love and freedom in His precepts. This is her tenth published book after writing titles on marriage, prayer, personal growth, as well as a children's book, a devotional, and a volume of poetry.