an excerpt

love is patient, love is kind...it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. love never fails. there was the heart of the common ground we both had lost, but found as we put ourselves secondary to the Anchor we forgot was (and still is) holding us both. & the lord melted our hardened hearts & shifted our focus from "me", to "us". the notion of us. the notion of us i thought i had internalised until it was put through the trial of fire and refined under flame. let us listen, let me listen & cease to speak. we were finally talking with each other.

so this is what it means to love with the Love You have showered onto us. the Love that is not self-seeking, not easily angered, that is patient and kind, that always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perseveres. a love so unconditional it keeps no record of wrongs, of who gives more, but brings us both back to first principles, to a place where we were both always giving, always understanding, always praying & always loving (before this label of love made us complacent).

now i understand why i love kissing you so much: it is an exclusive action expressing love, reconciliation and oneness. one of the best moments in life felt like last night, when the storm cleared & we sat beneath a sky exploding into fireworks, just having a sacred, ineffable moment with each other.

love is giving the last drop of water, when i'm parched

each time, of our time
we hug ever so tight,
but tight never seems enough.
the moment of silence.
i rest my head on your shoulder, thinking:
i miss you, even
before our day is gone.

the way you've unconsciously started to
spell, just like i do.
lyfe. fud. kickass. okie. tho. 
i can't remember when
you made your way into my heart.
but the night you held me
as i was a crying wreck -
that was the night i could
already say those three words
i'd never uttered before,
to any other counterparts.

i clutch your arm,
koala your side,
drink you in,
trace your collarbones,
& throw my arms around your neck -
how solid the feel of
skin to skin,
head against head,
face to face.
pressed lips
& the way your arms become
my jacket -
wrapping me warm.
eyes closed, praying:
God help me remember
this moment, & the next,
& forever after.

i wear you on my sleeve -
with you,
i wear my heart on my sleeve
& pray for long escalator rides.
your face cupped in my tiny hands -
i wish i could grasp you this concretely
in memories too.

two-thirds of the day i've dedicated to
growing, soaring -
higher, faster, greater, stronger!
explore, invest, hustle -
but i always come home
for the latter one-third
to you,
my homecoming -
irrespective of physical
or imagined form.

i've never known how it's like
to spend both (& full) days
of the weekend on adventures together -
like other couples.

even our relationship
is fraught with geographical distance -
spread across excruciating time frames
& punishing work/personal schedules.
spain. korea. army. even
within our tiny island home,
we're miles apart.

but sometimes, i still catch myself
tearing up -
because finally,
at twenty-one, i think
i know, i really think i do know
what love is.

you are love, who leads me
to the Love,
& whose love makes me
want to love
my loved ones
around me.
just by loving me,
with this genuine heart of yours.