Shelley, I met you 18 years ago.  We were friends, and ultimately lovers. Seventeen years ago, after a few weeks of soul searching and that free-fall feeling in the pit of my stomach, I realized I was in love with you.  I wasn’t going to tell you.  After all, having that on the table would certainly complicate our already complicated lives.

But I couldn’t help myself.  I confessed my secret to you, and braced myself for the worse possible response, which I got: “I was afraid of that”, you replied.  “Oh woe is me”, I was thinking – I shouldn’t have told you.  Not too much later that afternoon, you confessed YOUR secret – that you were in love with ME. Oh frabjous day!  My heart was soaring.  Not only did you love me back, the fact of that amplified the joy I felt in loving you.

You ask why I love you.  I reply, “because”, or “why not”.  It is difficult to describe in words a feeling, and it is not my way to question why I feel the way I do.  But I can tell you that you fill my heart with joy and energy so strong that sometimes I think I’m going to explode.  You make me laugh, you teach me things, you encourage me, you support me, you challenge me, you know me better than I know myself.  You are my soul mate and a wonderful companion. And there’s never been any doubt in my mind that we would share the rest of our lives together.  Our love is strong, deep, and transcends all time.
 

I'm not sure that I ever dreamed of loving like I do. I don't think that I ever expected to find someone like you. You came along into my life and opened up my heart and gave my life a brand new start.

If you gathered up all the cards I have ever given to you, the words, the poems I have ever written for you, and the loving words that I have ever told to you or simply thought in my mind.

If you harvest all these things together, you might just start to get close to the way you make me feel- a tidal wave of love and emotion,

For our love can't be measured.  No quantum mechanics exist, no quirk of quarks, no measure of bonds, covalent or otherwise comes close.  No matter that we are stardust in the eyes of the universe, our love is an immeasurable force through the ripples of time.

You are my universe, my web, and my hearth, the home of my heart.  You are a treasure that outshines gold with your smile. No worldly goods would I trade for your friendship, no trip to other ports worth the time away from you.  You are my rock, my foundation, my anchor in a world of constant seachange.

Our love is a timeless flower from our souls that opens each morning at dawn to a new day filled with adventure and growth.  It is a shared walk down life's path detouring here and there to take in the grandeur of nature and the taste of life's goodness and the experience of life's passages.

I ask you now to share my dreams, my jokes, my schemes, the laughter and the tears, to help me through the days and nights and push away the fears.  I'm asking, dear, to share your life and I couldn't ask for more.  For this much I am certain, I know that together the best is yet to come.