Tell Me You Love Me While You Still Can

We take many things for granted in our lives. Life itself is one of them.

We make grand plans for our futures without realizing how life is unpredictable and none of us knows which breath will be our last.

We think we have all the time in the world to achieve what we want and say what we should until it slips through our fingers like sand.

We wait for the perfect moment to tell people how we feel about them when the only moment we have is now.

Carpe Diem.

Should we not tell the people we love how much we love them while we still have the opportunity?

Should we not consider ourselves lucky that we occupy this planet at the same time as ‘The One’ we think worthy of our devotion?

Should we not embrace love while we are still here and they are still here instead of pushing it away out of fear?

Should you not tell me you love me before it is too late?

Tell me you love me while it still matters. I know you felt the same connection I did. I know my words had an impact on you. I could see it in your eyes. I could read it on your face.

I know you have bookmarked the page we were both on and shut the book out of uncertainty and fear in the hope that you might open the page again when your feelings are less fuzzy and your life is less chaotic.

Tell me you love me before I decide to shut the book as well.

I imagine myself settling down with you in the near future and starting a family. I have always wanted a daughter I could spoil.

A daughter that resembles you. Not just in the way I write odes on her beauty.

She is smart and fiery and passionate like you.

She knows how to stand up for herself but she also knows when to be compassionate.

She frowns harder than you when something annoys her and she laughs more hysterically than you when something amuses her.

I imagine myself teaching her about things that actually matter. Things that we live for. Art. Poetry. Literature.

Tell me you love me so the picture in my head of how my life should turn out becomes a reality.

Tell me you love me so I do not smile wistfully and say I cannot recall the contours of your face or the nuances of your voice when someone asks about you a few years from now. Tell me you love me so I grin widely and tell them you are waiting for me at home.

Tell me you love me so I do not end up associating your name with pain. Tell me you love me so each syllable in your name becomes my favourite sound in the world.

Tell me you love me before someone else does. Because someone else surely will even if you choose not to.

And I will tell this someone else I love them too. And the picture in my head of how my life should turn out will end up becoming a beautiful reality. Just not with you.

But I still want it to be you. God knows how much I want it to be you.

Before things end, let them begin.

Before the sun sets, let it rise.

Before love goes to waste, salvage it.

In the immortal words of Pablo Neruda,

“If nothing saves us from death, may love at least save us from life.”

Save me from myself.

Tell me you love me.