Roots

Baby, there's something I need you to know about me.

I love you.

And we're not talking about a high school puppydog love. Oh, sure… there's still more we don't know about each other than that we do, but that doesn't matter. That's circumstantial. This love? This love is foundational. This love grew over the seasons, all on its own. While I wasn't watching, our souls just barely brushing against each other for so, so long — until somehow, something stuck.

And once it did, that was it. We were done. Cooked. Even if we didn't know it yet. Because suddenly, those bits of our souls started to intertwine. Roots of two trees meeting each other underground, out of sight, but rather than competing for water and nourishment, they started wrapping around each other, quietly growing together such that each of those trees grew stronger, more resilient, more radiant than before, leaves more verdant and alive.

Look, I know I'm mixing my metaphors here, but what I'm trying to say is…

Yeah. I don't know all of you. But, you know what? I do love all of you. Every. Last. Bit. Those I've seen, those I haven't. Those that just haven't come up yet, or that I just haven't been smart enough to ask the right question to unlock. Even the bits that you keep close to your chest, afraid of letting me see. I love them. I love you. Will you challenge me sometimes? Oh, I have no doubt of that. But I am up for it. I look forward to it, even if you think I shouldn't. Because the more of you that I know, the happier I will be — even if sometimes I have to be a little bit less happy in the short term. Unlike those teens we're raising, my prefrontal cortex is well developed. I can plan. I can goal set.

And I can deal with setbacks, when they happen. Because that path I like to talk about us walking? Man, it is treacherous sometimes. Speaking of challenges, just that path alone is gonna challenge us, try to break us. Well. I don't know about you, but I, for one, don't plan to let it. I will not be broken. My resolve will not be broken. So the path might turn back on itself sometimes. So what. Sometimes switchbacks are the only way up the mountain.

And, baby, I think you do already know this, but I am patient. My love for you? It isn't going anywhere. I loved you quietly for years, more than you would probably guess. The only thing that time does to my love for you is make it grow. And grow. And grow.

So, babe. If you ever worry, if you ever wonder, if you ever start to doubt… remember this:

I am here.

I love you.

I am not going anywhere.

I have loved you for years.

And I am going to keep loving you, for exactly as long as I continue to exist.

And somehow, some way, I'm gonna keep on loving you even after.

Because, babe. Seriously. I mean it.

I am yours.