to be loved

an ode to the people who grace my life with their presence, you taught me how to be present, to be in love with myself and to share my love with you.

to be loved is to be seen and known, not in a bold or noisy way, but in a kind, quiet way. it is deliberate, often subtle.

it’s in the ingredients chosen for a dish made just for you, in the way they stay up to hear every story even as their eyes fight sleep, in that second glance that lingers a heartbeat longer when you wear a certain color. it’s in the kindness in their eyes that hold your emotions and lock them in the safest place in the world. it’s in the longer route they take, just so you can catch a better view of the sunset from the passenger seat. in the flavor of ice cream they picked one they don’t even like, only so you could try something new. in the warmth of their breath on your neck when they sleep turned the way that’s most comfortable for you, not for them. it’s in the way they search for your hand as soon as the walking signal turns green, afraid they might lose you in the crowd. In the way their grip tightens when you pass a manhole, as soon as you carelessly joke about falling in one. in the way they shuffle the carrying bags around so one of their hand is always available to hold yours.

as they say, there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts and if you’re lucky, you’ll get to feel more than a few of them: love served as cut fruit on a sweltering afternoon, love curled into tiny fingers clinging to your index finger like they’ll never let go, love tumbling out in a breathless monologue stitched together faster than words can keep up, because the story of the stuffed whale and the stuffed snake simply had to be told.

quite often you’ll even see it in the “lol that’s so u” texts you receive with a meme that only makes sense to them or “oh look you yawn exactly like this” when you pass by a tiny little dog on the street. sometimes in the “how are you” that arrives after months of silence.

this kind of love is lighter than a feather and more often than not it doesn’t require any words or actions to be conveyed. it’s the quiet force that shapes your days and weeks, the reason you move through your months with purpose and sometimes, if you’re truly lucky, it becomes the reason behind every goal in your life.

it makes you realize that hopping to a new country every month is a pretty worthless goal if it isn’t with this very person, or maybe you don’t even want to travel because right here, in this very moment, you feel at home, and at home is the most beautiful place to be.