This Is What Love Is To Me

Love is smiling about nothing but the thought of you.

Love is the little moments shared between the doom and the gloom and the busyness of life, with all its endless work calls and emails and responsibilities and surviving the day-to-day, whether in isolation or in a crowd. Love is all the times I’ll never take for granted that I get to spend with you.

Love is whenever something good happens and you’re the first to know.

Love is collecting every dinner receipt, movie ticket, photo booth photograph, and every little trinket I get whenever I’m with you (and from you) to preserve every memory, every hour and minute of breath I spent with you.

Love is the adventures to take, the new places to see, the new things to do, and all the other moments I want to share with you.

Love is missing you five minutes after I’ve just seen you.

Love is falling asleep together on the couch while a Netflix documentary about the wild plays on the TV, worn out from the schedules we packed as if time is running out, but we’ve got a lifetime ahead.

Love is walking around the city with our hands intertwined, and we should be looking at where we’re going, but we keep looking at each other instead.

Love is in your eyes when you’re looking into mine.

Love is staying up late on a weeknight when I have eight hours of work the next day just to write you a poem about what love is all about for Valentine’s day.

Love is the brighter days, the bigger smiles, the more colors I see in this world because you are in it.

Love is holding you close—so close—and never letting go.

Love is the plans we make as I start to look forward to a future with you.

Love is giving each other the space to grow with hopes that we’ll both grow together.

Love is falling into your arms after a long day at work, and my eyes are weary but I’m happy knowing I am home whenever I’m with you.

Love is baking macarons on New Year’s Day or fishing on a Friday or walking by the beach at sunset or sharing food or drinks or my bed. Love is the feeling of ease in sharing a life with you and the simplicity of it all.

Love is when I’m feeling overwhelmed and my anxiety is kicking in, but you patiently listen to all I have to say with so much care and understanding. Love is the safe space that you are to me.

Love is when you’re sick and I panic at heart, knowing you’re not well. I’d drive everywhere just to get you what you need to get back to good health.

Love is all these people around us and all the different stories and memories I could write but choosing to be with you instead.

Love is the home-cooked meal, the folded laundry, the washed dishes, and the flowers waiting for me by the doorstep.

Love is staying in with you on a Saturday night while all our friends are drunk in a club because I would rather be warm and asleep beside you instead.

Love is the messy, complicated, emotion-filled fights that we have when communication fails us and we can’t get to the point of understanding, but the fear of losing each other outweighs the pride and everything that’s getting in between us.

Love is your presence by my hospital bed while I whimper in pain, sick and sad from all the issues I have. Love is the way you hold my hand during difficult times that lets me know everything will be just fine.

Love is a long night and I’m up at 2 a.m. with a thousand different thoughts running inside my head like a deluge that won’t calm down, but they disappear with just a kiss from you.

Love is the first hug and kiss after not seeing each other for so long, the first touch after a fight, and the last glimpse I steal whenever we say goodbye. Love is the tears we both cry whenever we’re not seeing eye to eye.

Love is when I tell you about my day and you tell me about yours and we agree we missed each other all throughout the day, then we talk about something else.

Love is the sunsets and sunrises and the sea breeze and warm summer days. Love is beginning and ending each day with you.

Love is seeing a text while at work and smiling because it’s from you and the hundred flirty messages and dirty jokes that follow.

Love is the hurt I feel whenever I see you sad.

Love is the music you brought to my life, like a melody that was stuck in my head for years and finally figuring out what song it was.

Love is the warmth and comfort you give me whenever you’re around.

Love is simply being there for one another.

Love is feeling grateful every second of every day, for my life is enriched simply because you are in it.