From: MJ, age 18, Washington DC
To: M, age 17, Ohio

Rollercoasters are nothing compared to us– we’ve been up and down, and yet with each wave of it, we defy gravity, for each low is lower than the last, yet each high is limitlessly higher. It has taken me a while to figure it out, but now I know exactly how it is that you have blessed me over the last five years: you have actually made my heart bigger. Every time I fall in love with you, it seems that you take my whole heart, and I can’t possibly love you any more. But then you come around again and I see that I love you even more than before.

“Love,” doesn’t cover it…
“Forever,” isn’t long enough…

So,

Yours,
M.

From: Some_Yahoo, 46, Manteca, CA
To: LaughingFig, Age: I could tell you but I’d have to kill you, Manteca, CA

Mrs. Me was born in Pella, Iowa with CP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy) in the 1960’s and because of her disease was considered to be a burden, a lost cause, and a general waste of energy.

Except to her family.

She grew up going from surgery to leg braces (like Forrest Gump) back to surgery and somehow managed to learn piano, finish high school, and even go to college. By the time we met in 1981 she was working in a prestigious law firm in Arizona. When I met her the things I noticed were her talents: Piano, intelligence, faith, and an unflappable willingness to put up with idiots like me.

Now it’s been 23 years and two kids since we got married. We have one finishing high school and another off to college. She wakes up every day with the likelihood of pain and yet faces the future with a smile (most of the time LOL). She is stubbornly proud of not being a burden to anyone. She is the perfect person to think of when I start to feel sorry for myself. She has made me the man I am, which is a much better man than she originally found.

You’re my inspiration, my heart, and my soul. I’m so lucky you were temporarily stupid enough to marry me.

Thank God you found me.

Some_Yahoo

From: Rob, 39, California
To: Lisa, 40, California

Lisa,

This is not a love message per se. I am just getting to know you, but I am already in deep *like* with you. I like that you are smart. I like that you are a writer. I like how you always give others the benefit of the doubt. I like that you try to have no expectations and are open to whatever happens. I like that you fidget in your chair when we talk. I like that you are a positive person. I like that we can talk for hours. I like that you are honest and tell me when my jokes are terrible. I like that I can just be me around you.

You told me that you are an “incher,” a person who inches their way into the water, not someone who dives in straight away. You are the same way in relationships. I respect that. I hope you keep inching in, further and further. I’ll wait for you, because you’re worth it.

Rob

From: Rion, 31, Ypsilanti, Michigan
To: PJ, 41, Ypsilanti, Michigan

My darling,

I think about you, and your new snake tattoo, with the biggest smile on my face. Being a part of your life has been really influential in my process of becoming myself.

I say more of what I believe.
I am challenged to be sincere and active.
I am happy with fewer material goods.
I believe that my dreams are both cosmic and reachable simultaneously.
I am surrounded in support and love.
I always have a date I can eat in front of.

Our similarities are as striking and as potent as our differences. You helped me to understand that we must not merge personalities, but rather become ourselves more fully while we support the other’s becoming. Your uniqueness and the unguessableness of your nature teach me that I am just who I am—not some creation of who I want to be—and that my personality need not be homogenous.

You still surprise me.
You often delight me.
You always teach me.
You care for others.
You always see the good in people.
You think before you speak.
You are funny, impish, and creative.

This is such a smidgen, such a small bit, of how I feel, and how much I know about you. Mostly I know, and I bless you, for sharing a Dutch Colonial house with me, our two Chihuahuas, and the kitties.

So much love,

Rion
http://rowanwand.blogspot.com/

From: Suzy, 31, Miami
To: Nick, 3, Miami

My sweet little man: the day you came into this world, you changed it forever! Through speakers in an operating room, Madonna’s lyrics couldn’t have captured my sentiments more accurately…

No more sadness, I kiss it good-bye
The SON is bursting right out of the sky
I searched the whole world for someone like you
Don’t you know, don’t you know that it’s
True love, oh baby, true love, oh baby
True love, it’s true love baby!

I would walk away from anyone/anything for you.
Thank you for bringing sunlight into my life.

Suzy
http://sue-i-am.blogspot.com/

From: Joseph Cusimano, Toronto, Canada
To: All passionate lovers

“The Metamorphosis of Venus”
(c) Joseph Cusimano

Artist’s Interpretation:

The rose rises from the depth of our soul and floats in the infinite blue space of our mind. It is the symbol of love that overcomes the emotional turmoil of a rousing passion (running figure); it is the personification of Venus, the elusive and tantalizing goddess of everlasting happiness. She
stands at the centre of our perception surrounded by anthropomorphous clouds that recall the inhabitants of the sea (clouds shaped as shark, turtle, dolphin) as they reflect on the transitory aspect of life and the legacy of our memory (as it is) articulated on the undulating rocks in the landscape of time (ruins).

“The Metamorphosis of Venus” (red ball - red rose, white torso - white cloud) allows our feelings to petrify (rocks) before the end of our passionate journey as a reminder to those who will follow that the present is not only embedded in the past but it also stands as a beacon for the future.

Joseph Cusimano
http://www.JosephCusimano.com

Artist’s Interpretation & Image copyright Joseph Cusimano, used with
permission.

From: Monica Lasich, 41, Irvine, CA
To: Cory Vincent, 40, Irvine, CA

You are the best husband a wife could have.

Monica Lasich - Falling Awake

From: Monica, Boston
To: Fernán, Miami

You take my breath away sometimes when I think of you.
We’ve never been anything, and if our timing keeps going the way that it has been going, we may never be anything.
But we’ve been good friends, told each other things we never told other people, danced with glasses of Flor de Caña in our hands and bachata on the stereo, and I can’t imagine how the years would have been without your presence in my life.
You take other girls out to dinner and parties and I date other people, and maybe we’ve even loved other people, but as they come and go in our lives we still seem to be there.
I drift off and I drift back and you never reproach me for my disappearances except with a soft, “I’ve missed hanging out with you, Monica,” at some point when it’s late one night and you’re tired enough to forget your iron-clad self-control.
But our timing is sadly always off, so I bite my tongue and move on with my life and sometimes stop to wonder if one day maybe our timing would be better– when I’m not already wrapped up in something and when you might stop refusing to break your self-control and change our friendship.
You will always be one of my closest of friends, though, as you have been for all of recent memory, even if nothing more.

And for that, I love you.
Monica