This Is What Love Is

They say that maybe love isn’t an intense shot of tequila as much as it is a long sip of well-matured wine. I think everyone expects love to be this intense experience. But it’s not.

Love is comfortable. It’s being able to let your guard down, to completely be in the presence of your loved one. Love is pure. It’s unadulterated and untouched. Love is raw. It’s one of the most vulnerable emotions a person can feel. But most of all, love is a choice.

Love is being able to accept their quirks. Like the fact that they need to set five alarms before they actually wake up. Or the fact that they always have to go to the bathroom twice before they can sleep. Love is staying by their side at their lowest, and celebrating with them at their highest. It’s being there through the ups and the downs.

Love is being able to put their life before yours. To be able to place their dreams above your own, to give up your life for theirs even. Love is compromise. It’s a give and take, you don’t always win and that’s okay. Love is the little things. It’s the “have you eaten today?”, it’s the “I miss you”. It’s the flowers for no reason, the forehead kisses, and the surprise hugs.

Love is not understanding what you’re feeling because there isn’t a word in the English language to describe what you feel.

Like, what is the word for the feeling you get when you love someone so intensely that their feelings become your feelings? When their sadness swirls into yours, mixing your emotions like a cocktail. Or what is the word for that feeling when you catch them looking at you, and all you feel is warmth to your bones even though it’s the middle of winter and you are surrounded by the stinging cold.

Love is falling asleep next to the one you love. To watch as their chest rises and falls. To fall asleep to the music of their lungs. Love is staying up past humane time, spilling truths from your lips. What scares you, what keeps you going, what your dreams are, your future, and does it include me?

Love is waking up next to the one you love. To have them wrap their arms around you so that their touch is the first thing you feel when your mind breaks from sleep and hinges on reality. Love is looking into their eyes as it shifts from cloudy sleep to bright life. Hazy with dreams, but brimming with the hope of today.

Love is reckless. Love is a hurricane. Love is adrenaline.

But Love is also calm, Love is also peace and Love is also comfortable.

Love is.