empty cards and overflowing letters

It's been over a year since we found each other again and it's been longer, perhaps, since my heart recognised something of itself in you. I love you in a way I have loved no-one else, but that of course is as obvious as it is necessary. I don't think you can love the same way twice, but I might be mistaken. I hope I'm not. Because the way I love you is easier, simpler, kinder. I have loved only a few times, but I have known no better love and I have no interest in being proven wrong.

You came to me at a time when I needed someone who understood without needing me to explain. You came from the same bad place, perhaps, that I did. We know those wastelands. The stench is familiar, sometimes too close for comfort and oft-times it felt like they were endless, tireless and unrelenting. But since then, we have learned to survive in hostile places. We even learned to love them. You came out better than I did, but you had better reasons than I ever did. And though we were tired when we finally came around, we weren't seeking comfort in each other. I don't think we really knew what we wanted, or if we wanted anything at all. But life has a funny way of working and God has a funny way of knowing what we need, before we have a clue.

I love you because you loved me before I even thought I wanted to love you back. I love you because you, in the selfish way you love, reminded me that sometimes it's okay to be selfish. I love you because you know me (sometimes, a little) and you love what you know. I love you because you're patient, and you think it's worth the effort. I love you for understanding when I have given you empty cards and letters, that all my love is poured in them though you cannot see it. I love you because you don't love what I love, but you love that I love it. I love you for being all the things I'm not and never wished to be, but love that they're you. I love you because we never dance (but I remember a quiet waltz we shared one night). I love you because you softened me just as I was about ready to break.

But mostly, I love you because you love me, though I am so difficult and you're so easy to love.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

- e.e. cummings