l'amour: la langue universale

This might be written for you. If you read it and think it might apply, it probably does. Because it IS written for you. And you. And you. And that kid over there. And that girl in the back.

Life is tough. And it’s only going to get tougher the longer we’re all alive. We make choices every day and those choices define who we are. Sometimes, when your guard is down, shit happens. Maybe you’re not ready for it yet.  Someday, you’ll have to be.  But maybe right now, you needed to be away from it.  Maybe right now, it was too much for you.  I understand that. I forgive you.

Maybe, you didn’t know what it meant to be supportive.  Maybe you knew, but didn’t understand.  Maybe you knew, and understood, but just couldn’t, for whatever reason. 

Was I angry? Yes.  Was I hurt?  Yes. 

But the realization has hit, and it surrounds a word a mere 13 letters long: Unconditional.

You don’t have to support me. I’m going to support you anyway.

You don’t have to love me. I’m going to love you anyway.

You don’t have to respect me. I’m going to respect you anyway.

You don’t have to pray for me. I’m going to pray for you anyway.

You don’t have to care about me. I’m going to care about you anyway.

I don’t have to mean a single thing to you but I want YOU to know that I unconditionally love you no matter what, through thick and thin, because you are a creation of this world and you MATTER and you DESERVE to be loved.

It’s a big world…I hope you find what you’re looking for. Until then, and for forever after…I’ll still be here, with unwavering faith.

Brian Andreas = amazing. I love his work. And I’m feeling in the mood to share my favorites.

“Today she decided to be suitably ambiguous, so you can think whatever you’d like about her.”

“She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short.”

“You’re the strangest person I ever met, she said & I said you too & we decided we’d know each other a long time.”

“He loved her for almost everything she was & she decided that was enough to let him stay for a very long time. “

“I saw them standing there pretending to be just friends, when all the time in the world could not pry them apart. ”

“I held her close for only a short time, but after she was gone, I’d see her smile on the face of a perfect stranger and I knew she would be there with me all the rest of my days.”

“Don’t you hear it? She asked & I shook my head no & then she started to dance & suddenly there was music everywhere & it went on for a very long time & when I finally found words all I could say was thank you. “

“In the end, I think that I will like that we were sitting on the bed, talking & wondering where the time had gone.”

“If you’re right & I’m not, I’m going to be hell to live with, she said. So, you better think about that next time you want to be right. ”

“Are you a princess? I said & she said I’m much more than a princess, but you don’t have a name for it yet here on earth. “

“I’m not sure if there’s one right place I’m supposed to be, he said, but I know a couple of wrong places I’d give a second try in a heartbeat. ”

“I have too much to lose, she said, if I cross that line. Like what? I said. She could not think of anything that day so she said she’d get back to me. Since then I’ve been thinking what I would lose if I cross my line & I haven’t come up with anything either. There’s always another line somewhere.”

“For a long time she flew, only when she thought no one else was watching.”

“I don’t really like coffee, she said, but I don’t really like it when my head hits my desk when I fall asleep either. “

“The first time her laughter unfurled its wings in the wind, we knew that the world would never be the same”

“Everything changed the day she figured out there was exactly enough time for the important things in her life.”

“When I first met him, I knew in a moment I would have to spend the next few days re-arranging my mind so there’d be room for him to stay.”

“My grandma used to plant tomato seedlings in tin cans from tomato sauce & puree & crushed tomatoes she got from the Italian restaurant by her house, but she always soaked the labels off first. I don’t want them to be anxious about the future, she said. It’s not healthy. ”

“There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other’s cooking & say it was good.”

“If I love you with all my heart, she said, what will you give me? & then she stopped & said I didn’t have to answer that because she was going to do it anyway.”

“It’s easy, deciding everything is falling into place perfectly, as long as you don’t get too picky about what you mean by place. Or perfectly.”

“She tapped her finger and nothing happened and she thought she had lost her magic, but it had only changed and it took her awhile to figure it out.”

“She left pieces of her life behind her everywhere she went. It’s easier to feel the sunlight without them, she said.”

“She learned to love him before he thought it was even possible, so he didn’t have a chance to hide & mess it up & while it was a little scary at times, mainly he could not even imagine the world without her there.”

“When she played her music even the night demons stopped their work & it took them some time to remember what it was they were doing & the best of them had no stomach for it for a long time after that.”

“He just sat in the church looking up at nothing in particular & I whispered what are you doing? & he said if Jesus had been a chicken would we have Weber grills all over the place instead of crosses? & I had a hard time concentrating after that, too.”