She said falling in love for the second time is much harder,
because walls go up,
because hearts remember things,
because softness has to fight its way through old armor.
And I had only met her that morning.
A stranger,
yet somehow familiar.
Warm in that immediate way,
present in that rare way,
calming in a way that felt like she had practiced peace
the way others practice piano or yoga or the art of breathing.
When she said those words,
I thought,
what a beautiful game we play.
This game of love,
this game where even if love were one in a million,
there would still be sixty hearts made for you somewhere on this spinning planet.
And truthfully,
love is not that rare.
Love is not an on or off switch.
Love is practice.
Love is noticing.
Noticing birdsong,
noticing the soft shine in a stranger’s eyes,
noticing the awkward guy from the hostel
stepping onto a stage he never thought he’d climb
and dancing like courage lived in his bones.
Love is noticing anything
that asks to be noticed.
And answering it.
Gently.
Most dissolving into love is learned,
the way a musician learns to trust their fingers,
the way a yogi learns to fold into breath,
the way a body learns to lift more weight
not through force
but through repetition,
through invitation,
through play.
Walls go up,
yes,
but they can be climbed,
and they can be softened,
and sometimes they melt
when someone stands in front of you
with eyes unguarded.
The truth is,
I think I am in love right now,
in that glowing way
where the world feels sequenced
like some quiet cosmic rhythm
behind awe
and laughter
and joy.
And maybe we were strangers,
and maybe we will never see each other again,
but I wrote this anyway
because if even one in a thousand hearts
lets a stone fall from its wall,
if even one person
lets light in
because of a line in this poem,
then it is worth it.
Because loveliness is practice,
connection is practice,
softness is practice,
and with practice
everything gets easier,
and then it gets fun,
and then it becomes the most natural thing in the world.
To love.
To glow.
To be alive in front of each other.