We Love

We love in little ways that are bigger than they seem. We love by offering smiles when we’re crying inside. We love by lifting others when we feel torn down.

We love by holding – holding doors, holding hands, holding hope, holding on. We love by letting go – our fears, our regrets, expectations, definitions, and hold.

We love with sweat. We love by building houses and working common jobs. With trades and hobbies, we love. We love by fixing cars and planting trees, carrying groceries, building fences, and tearing down walls.

We love with passion. We love with kisses, both gentle and consuming. We love in soft surrender beneath clean white sheets, and in the heat of the night with earnestness and force. We love through thrusts, moans and groans, through sighs and giggles, through caress and embrace. We love tenderly and we love fiercely, we love in silence and we love with roars.

We love with our hands. We love by cooking meals and holding jackets. We love by planting seeds. We love by tending soil and pouring water. We love by providing light. By checking seatbelts and carrying snacks, by opening our arms, our homes, our lives; we love.

We love softly. We love with cradles, rocks, and hums. And we love wildly. We love with the loyalty of the wolves, the sprightliness of the birds, the fierce protectiveness of the bear. We love with howls and shrieks, and we love with gentle nudges and tight hugs. We love in daylight, with laughs and play. We love in the dead of night, with claws and teeth.

We love with self-care. We love by keeping our own pitchers full enough to water new sprouts. We love by taking deep breaths and deep dives, short breaks and long sighs. We love with the foods we eat, with the ways we move, and the hours we sleep. We love others by loving ourselves.

We love with art. We love in color and we love with sound. We love with our imaginations as much as our hearts. In dance, with notes and with words, on marble and clay, paper and air; we love. We love by shaping the world, by creating the new, by shaping and creating and expressing ourselves.

We love with our souls, with our hearts, and with our minds. We love with compassion. We love with patience, with honesty, with forgiveness, presence, and care – for one another and for ourselves.

We love by losing ourselves and we love by finding ourselves. We love by serving and by being served. We love by seeking and we love by teaching. We love by healing and by being healed. We love by giving, and in receiving we love.

We love through little offerings of kindness, and through great acts of courage and faith. With fierceness and with calm, all at once and a single step at a time, we love. We love in ways unique to ourselves and through means universally understood. It matters not how we love; nor whom or where. What matters is that we love.

© 2019 Cristen