perhaps love

perhaps love is the long-awaited reunion among primary school friends. the bonds of love that better with age, as fragrant wine. yes, as wine indeed, the reunion is bittersweet, a mingling of gentle smiles and painful tears. poured out slowly and carefully, the richness envelops you, knowing that you have years of shared history to draw upon. we part not definitively, but leaving that lingering taste in your mouth, knowing that there are many days ahead and experiences to share and endings to forge. kimkangsmife, you are all much loved and much thought about.

perhaps love is a simple message from an old friend. one whom you can trust and is completely honest with you, and has been there through the highest ups and the lowest downs. the realisation that he is under-appreciated but never protests such unwitting malignment. sending an sms, 'i'm happy you're happy'. thank you makoto, because you've been a stronger friend than i've cared to tell you over the years.

'perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one's life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; Perhaps it crept into one's side like an old friend through quiet ways; Perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music; Perhaps...perhaps...love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.' kai, you're perhaps the most unexpected bend in the road so far. not that i regret it :)

perhaps love is not found is fading flowers and handwritten letters, but in splintered wood and twisted bramble; not so much in interlocked fingers but in pierced palms. a valentine's day card will never provide as adequate a discourse as 1 corinthians 13 always will; honey-coated sweet-talk never the substitute for a rasping, dying breath of anguish. opening one's eyes to awake in the arms of one's beloved is deep romance enough, but greater still is the unfathomable love that rolls the stone away from the tomb. thank you Jesus, for being my first love always and showing me what it means to love.

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because it's only because i had this love first that i can now love others.

perhaps, after all these years, i understand why love truly is the greatest of them all.