Foolishly in Love

I remember that day vividly.

I was at the Shakespeare Gardenin California.

The weather was beautiful.The sun was out,the kind of afternoonthat makes you want to stay outsidea little longer than you planned.

And I remember seeing this couple.

They were lost.

Not the kind of lostthat makes you reach for a map.

No.

They were lost in each other.

Laughing,smiling,looking at each otheras though the rest of the worldhad politely excused itselfto give them a moment alone.

And I stood there thinking,

How beautiful.

How wonderfully,ridiculously,foolishly beautiful.

Because they were acting like children.

You know,the kind who laugh at thingsthat aren’t even funny,who make silly facesand invent little gamesout of absolutely nothing.

The kind who haven’t yet learnedto be embarrassedby how happy they are.

And I thought,

Maybe that’s it.

Maybe that’s what loveis supposed to feel like.

Not always butterfliesor grand gesturesor words carefully arrangedto sound like poetry.

But finding someonewho makes the little child inside youcome running out of hiding.

Someone who reminds youhow to laugh with your whole body,how to dance without music,how to be sillywithout apologizing for it.

Because I thinkwe spend so much of our liveslearning how to grow up.

We learn to be serious.To be responsible.To behave ourselves.

We learn to lower our voices,hold back our laughter,and tuck away the parts of usthe world calls childish.

And somewhere along the way,we forget how beautiful it isto simply play.

So I hope lovegives us that back.

I hope one dayI find someonewith whom I can becompletely, unapologetically ridiculous.

Someone I can laugh withuntil my stomach hurts,until we’re both cryingover a jokethat wasn’t even that funnyto begin with.

Someone who will dance with mein the kitchenwhile dinner gets cold.

Who will turn an ordinary Tuesdayinto a memoryI’ll still be smiling abouttwenty years later.

And don’t get me wrong.

I know love isn’t alwayssunshine and laughter.

I know there will be dayswhen life asks usto be serious.

When bills need paying,when hearts need mending,when the weight of being adultsfeels a little too heavy.

But I hope,even then,we never forget how to play.

I hope we grow old enoughto have silver in our hairand wrinkles around our eyes,but never so oldthat we forgethow to make each other giggle.

Because what a beautiful thing it would beto spend a lifetimegrowing older with someonewithout ever growing outof the joy of being together.

And perhapsthat’s what I loved mostabout that couple.

They weren’t tryingto impress anybody.

They were simply enjoyingthe beautiful little worldthey had found in each other.

And there I was,in a garden named after Shakespeare,a man who wrote so many beautiful wordsabout love,

watching two peoplewho didn’t need a single one of themto make their love look like poetry.

And I thought,

I hope one daylove finds me like that.

Not just with someoneI can grow old with,

but someoneI can stay young with, too.