Before I met you ...

A tribute to the one who has explained through expression and action what love is ... to me.

Before I met you ...

I’ve loved you all of my life before I knew who you were. I wanted to feel your touch before I knew the hand that would reach for my face or embrace my finger tips right before our hands coupled together as one.

I wanted to capture your gaze before I knew the color of your eyes, the length of hesitation preceded by a blink, or the unique way each eyelid fell before you found comfort in sleep. I wanted to know the scent of your skin before I knew the tone it naturally radiates.

I wanted to feel the kisses you would offer me before memorizing their puck before each peck or long embrace. I wanted to know the sound of your laugh or what makes you laugh in life before becoming familiar with your smile. But I wanted to become familiar with your smile before I heard the words of “I love you” slip from your lips, pushed out by your tongue.

I wanted to know your urges, because I wanted to know how to excite them or appease them rather. I wanted to know the taste of your soul before knowing your favorite foods. But I wanted to know your favorite foods, so that I could gain an easy entrance into your heart.

I wanted to know what inspires your mercy before stepping in the shadow of your grace. I wanted to know your nightmares, so that I could placate them with new dreams. Most of all, I couldn’t wait to feel the “I love you” part that we would share on an overwhelming level, a level that proceeds any imagination one could invoke.

I have loved you all of my life, by choice, not by choice, by will, by desire, by demand, by a passion that balances the unseen worlds of spirituality and the heavens. I will love you all the days of my life, because I wanted to love exactly who you are, before I met you.