Being in love changes everything. Our whole perspective on life shifts into a new reality. Precious moments of insight and awareness reveal themselves in the most unexpected of places and leave marks you’ll always remember. Here are 20 of those often fleeting moments you’ll be familiar with if you’ve ever been in love.
1. When everyone else around you seems to vanish
You’re surrounded by people, perhaps on a dance floor or city street, yet to you they become nothing more than faint outlines. They are there but they are not there, unreal and irrelevant when face to face with the one you love.
2. When you realize an inhibition has been overcome
You never thought it was possible. You imagined you’d hide your weakness from people forever. Then suddenly, in a blink of an eye and without any resistance, you reveal yourself completely to your love, and it feels wonderful and natural.
3. When making them laugh makes you insanely happy
As their eyes shine and their lips curve around peals of laughter, an overwhelming feeling of joy fills your heart. It’s breathtaking and all you want to do is hold them and make them laugh forever.
4. When their encouraging look fuels your courage
Doubt and uncertainty can fill even the strongest of minds. However, when the one you love looks you in the eyes with complete faith and confidence in your abilities, you feel invincible. You know they have your back.
5. When your chest heaves with longing to touch them
You’re at work or driving to the store. A turn of phrase or a song on the radio suddenly reminds you of them. Like being hit with a wave of emotion, your whole body aches for their touch.
6. When you see colors more brightly and hear music more vibrantly
Everything around you appears in dazzling color. Flowers shine with hues from an artist’s palate and the sky becomes an awesome blue. Music dances in the air, rippling happily across surfaces with an almost tangible energy.
7. When mutual silence is an orchestra of happiness
A friend sends you a text message. As you look at your phone you realize you’ve been reading or watching TV for nearly an hour. Your lover is in the same room and not a word has been uttered for all that time yet you’re both perfectly content.
8. When you’d rather listen to their voice than anything else
They are telling you about their day or about a passion they have. You’re listening to their words but also to the melody of their voice. It’s the most beautiful sound you can remember hearing. You don’t want them to stop.
9. When you can’t put into words how you feel
As you make love and kiss into the night, you know words will never describe the feelings you possess for the one you love. Then you become aware it doesn’t matter because where your souls meet in the silent darkness, everything is understood.
10. When reality seems to transform itself as you embrace
You feel the frame of their body against yours, the warmth of their lips and the expression of their love. At that moment reality turns itself splendidly inside out and time ceases to be linear. Nothing else matters. Nothing else is real.
11. When you feel all your worries fade away
All day you’ve been stressed and worried. Your muscles are tense and sore. Nothing can distract your mind from the negativity. Until, that is, you touch the one you love. Like melting snow, everything feels right with the world once again.
12. When you realize the relationship is the most important thing to you
Our careers can take over large parts of our lives and fill our day-to-day focus. They’re important but as you walk with your love one Sunday afternoon, you understand in a heartbeat there’s something much more valuable needing cultivation.
13. When poetry and art takes on new meanings
As you’re waiting for a meeting or an appointment, you notice a painting on the wall. It’s one you’ve seen before but now it seems completely different. It has meaning you didn’t previously notice and a richness of depth that reminds you of the love you feel.
14. When you feel freedom instead of confinement
You’ve been in each other’s company non-stop all week. With anyone else you’d be gasping for alone time or to engage with your friends. But you’re not. You feel an immense sense of freedom and liberty in their company, and this makes you so happy.
15. When you realize you have been changed forever
The room is dark and you listen to the gentle rise and fall of your lover’s breath. As you do so, you understand your life will never be the same again. The impact they have made on you will remain, whether you’re together forever or just for a summer.
16. When the other person reveals something about you through their eyes
Music fills the air as you look into each other’s eyes. You see your reflection and the curvature of the room. But you also see something else. You see a jewel inside yourself you never saw before, until they revealed it with their loving gaze.
17. When you discover a fight has made you stronger
Shouting has echoed through the house. Tears are dried and soothing words replace harsh accusations. As your bodies entwine you realize the heat of this argument has cleared a broad path along which your relationship can move positively forwards.
18. When you realize solitude is when they’re far away
As you listen to your colleagues talking and laughing, you discover there’s a shroud of solitude surrounding you. It’s not a painful or sad isolation but rather a disconnection, cured only by the presence of the one you love.
19. When you believe you’d rather die with them than live without them
You’re watching a romantic movie. One of the main characters is killed or dies of an illness and leaves behind a grieving partner. The storyline makes you think of your own relationship and, if only for a brief moment, you genuinely believe you’d prefer to die with your lover than live without them.
20. When you feel your story will live on forever, somewhere
That moment when you’re sure the love you feel will outlive the both of you and exist somewhere, somehow, in some way. You think about it when you throw that pebble into the river or the sea, and know it’ll have your story etched upon it, forever.
Featured photo credit: Attractive young man carrying his pretty girlfriend and kissing. Mixed race couple in love outdoors in park. via shutterstock.com
