her smile drifted across the room like a refreshing breeze and my heart shone for the first time. the heat of the air melted away and I felt at home at last, after all these years…

this was my first true experience. a wafting flutter in the depths of my soul. not love, not yet. an intense, burning desire to reach, to strive, to fight for love, but not yet love in itself. like the desire to bite into fruit that has never been tasted, or dive from a cliff into a far distant blue speck that could be anything from a lake to a mug of water, or a shark infested pool, or a vein of Lapis Lazuli. I had no idea if I would enter that purest blue with my life intact or be dashed to pieces in one glorious moment of experience.

I simply assumed that time would tell.

had only I known…