I Will Remember How You Made Me Feel

Weightless.

That’s how you made me feel on the good days. I felt as if I was walking on air, each step lifting me higher than before. Nothing held me down, nothing limited my potential. You saw my potential as greater than I did, perhaps even greater than it really was. I shone from the inside out, radiating warmth and peace like the sun peeking out from the windblown clouds on the first day of spring. Flowers grew in place of lifeless leaves and I swear I felt them smiling at us when I opened my eyes. The wind whispered in my ears promises of happiness and belonging, and they echoed in our laughter as it was carried across the dancing fields. There was nothing but you, nothing but me, nothing but the fields of sunflowers that vowed a lasting hope.

Grounded.

That’s how you made me feel on the bad days. With my feet planted firmly on the ground, I felt at peace with the world. The earth beneath my toes was unshakeable, just like my faith in knowing that the sun would come out again. You took my trembling hands in yours and I knew in my tired, achy bones that everything would be okay. No matter the storm, no matter the winds, nothing could whisk me away from this moment. My heartbeat synced to the deafening claps of thunder in the distance, but the cool rain that snaked down my face never broke my gaze from your crystal green eyes. If I held onto you, I held onto hope. You reminded me to breathe, and when I did my lungs filled with a lightness that could chase out any darkness in my mind that attempted to entangle all my thoughts.

Connected.

That’s how you made me feel always. With you, the vines entangled my feet and my roots ran deeply through the ground in a way that left me connected with every form of life on the forest floor. When the forest breathed, so did I. When the sun shone down on the dewy leaves of the quiet morning at dawn, I came alive. Even the lightning strikes of the thunderstorms left every fiber of my being electrified. You woke me up in a way that revealed to me that before you, I wasn’t living. Surely, I was breathing; surely, I was alive, but I wasn’t living. You brought a light into my breath and a purpose to my heartbeat. The blood that pumped through my body was synonymous to the ebbs and flows of the shoreline: constant, powerful, and resolute.

Just as the fields remember the whispering promises of excitement made by the weightless winds, I will never forget how you left me walking on air. Just as the forest remembers the generations of strong oaks that once graced its floors, I will cherish the grounded peace I found in your strong arms. And just like the network of roots that brings the forest to life, I will treasure the life you breathed into my bones. No matter where the wind blows me, or the storm takes me, I will remember. Always.