Oh my. Someone I love? Does it have to be just one person? Because, even though I don't show it as often as I should, there are quite a few people that I have the deepest and greatest affection for.
Some I haven't seen in years, and some whose arrival I am anxiously awaiting.
Some who I call to even though we're separated by a country, and some I dearly miss even though I saw them a week ago.
Some I can't help but love even though I haven't known them for very long, and some loves that are trapped in the past.
This might seem like a bad thing but it doesn't take much to catch my eye. And, sometimes, I call that first infatuation by one of the most powerful four lettered words that exists: love. We could go on for a long time about how 'love' is probably the most overused word in the whole of language but I have a different philosophy about it. Don't take that to mean I don't consider love precious. Love (the word, the concept, or the feeling) is perhaps the most precious thing under the stars. But I don't think that it being precious means that we shouldn't be generous with our love.
If I have ever whispered, uttered, shouted, cried, or even just said that I love you, I beg of you to know that it was true in the moment that I said it. Maybe things have happened between us. Maybe time drew a great gap between us. Maybe we did a good enough job of making the gap ourselves. Maybe I only knew you for a moment and we brought each other joy. Maybe we're still close and you know how I feel about you. Whatever the case, I meant it when I said it.
If I have told you more than once that I love you, there's a good chance that it is a very lasting feeling on my part. Obviously, this goes to my family, both blood and found. Mom and Dad, I love you for bringing me up in a loving family and giving me so many chances for adventures. Tyler, I love you for being my protective big brother. Courtney, I love you for being an amazing partner for my brother. Whitaker, I love you for encouraging me to just go do things even if I'm scared. Hannah, I love you for inspiring me to make my own rules. Tayler, I love you for being with me through the good and bad times. Aunts and Uncles, I love you for being the siblings/friends you were to my parents. To my Sicily loves, I love you for helping me become the person that I am today. To my Western loves, I love you for helping me stay sane. To all the loves I've met in the in-between times, I love you for being part of my adventure.
It would be a lie if I didn't also say that I love you for loving me. I don't know what I would do in this world if I wasn't loved. Sometimes my brain plays a funny game and tells me that there's no possible way that anyone could love me. It's been playing that game for a long time now but I am learning. If you didn't love me the way you do, I know I'd be having an even harder time sorting the game from reality.
Ask almost anyone and they'll tell you that my love language is touch. Well, words are the long distance version. It's why I write love to write letters so often, which is going to sound silly to the 4 neighbors that I wrote letters to this past year. Words are the long distance form of touch because they can be sent further and preserved longer; words last across time and space. I can reread letters and postcards from however long ago and know that someone cares too.
Love is precious but I believe in being generous with it. There are many loveable, wonderful people in my life. I'd hate for any of them to go a day without feeling like someone cares about them. So I guess the message here is that I love you.
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