My heart is in Athens.

I once asked our editor-in-chief what made her choose to marry her husband.

“He wrote me love letters,” she replied.

And she keeps them all in a safe deposit box.

 

……..

 

This letter was given to me yesterday before he left, with the instructions READ ME EVERYDAY UNTIL PAO COMES HOME. (and because no one writes love letters on Cattleya sheets anymore…)

 

11/25/2010

To my dearest Michelle,

                Happy 13^th month anniversary.  I’ve always told you that I spend each day thinking about you, of how to love you more, and how my every move is done with your inspiration. Let me tell you now, and this is something that struck me w/ brute force this morning, that I can truthfully testify that I do fall in love w/ you each and every single day. I am in loving submission to you. I am in love with loving you. I see it as such an enriching way to spend my days, constantly amazed and excited at how we will love each other from the moment we wake up, until we slide back home into each other’s arms at the end of the day. You love me in the simplest, everyday ways. This is how I know my forever and my heart is safe with you, to be cradled and nurtured, even strengthened, by who you are. You are the one person I would like to hold, hear, talk to, and smile at in my best and worst times. The way I miss you, the way I thirst for you, the way I see you, and the way I adore you is like no other written in any novel or song. Because at the end of it all, you always make me smile. And that’s wonderful. That’s a keepsake. That’s perfect. You’re perfect. One day, I will look at the world, at people, and I know that our love has made a dent in the cold and calculating barriers of time and space. I know that I have found and achieved my greatest with you, and because of you. The feelings I have for you have not weakened nor waned. If anything, these are now reaching new heights while also meaning new depths. I love you now, more than ever. But I know that it’s just starting. We’re not even halfway there. And I am very, very excited. I am yours in thought, body, and soul. I will miss you dearly and promise to come home more in love with you.

<3 Paolo