Love.

Copyright © Mark R Kelly 2025

Four letters, one syllable, one word, yet a lifetime of pleasure, pain, joy, sadness, laughter, and tears.

Elusive and mercurial, it has the texture of a dream barely remembered, and can weigh heavier on your heart than anything imaginable.
In turns, it can lift and crush. Move you to song—or tears.

Never found when sought, yet like the wolf hunting its prey in a snow-covered forest, it tracks you down mercilessly when you least expect it, and when you’re least prepared.

Worst is the love felt for another beyond your reach.

Stolen glances, a yearning for their glance in return, a sign that you are seen, acknowledged, and that maybe—by the smallest of chances—that love is returned.

Unrequited love is the worst, for it’s not rejected; it’s just never known.
A view through a two-way mirror of your heart: you watch unseen.
Your touch meets that cold, invisible surface of oblivious ignorance to your yearning.

A lurch in the stomach at the mention of their name, the lift in your spirits when they enter the room—even a polite greeting as they pass you by—is blissfully painful, and yet your heart flutters.

Lost in an abstract study of their every move, the nuances of their facial expressions are a lullaby to your soul.

We never choose whom we love—not truly.
That is the enigma of love. The unexpected joy, the unwanted ache, the desire to connect.

When connection is made, the brilliance of the moment is dizzying, sometimes slightly confusing—as a gentle feather, unseen but present, gently stroking your cheek.
The sensation within your body leaves your stomach fluttering, your mind temporarily in neutral, yet your eyes seeing sharper than ever before, at the same time blind to everything beyond their face.

Love is the best feeling in the world. Love is also the worst.
Great masterpieces have been inspired by it; nations have gone to war because of it.
People have faced unimaginable adversity to reclaim it, and people have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect it.

Enduring, haunting, cruel, beautiful, dark, secret, and bright enough to fill an entire room—love is a blessing and a curse we all encounter on our journey of life.

There are no rules by which to cope when love finds you.
You are on your own.
It will either make you—or break you.

The real testament to the enduring soul is how you survive once it has touched your heart.

George Michael - "A Different Corner."