Love Lets You Drown

I'll swim down, would you?
You?

  

    

That’s the thing about love, isn’t it? It’s an ocean, wide and endless, something you can wade into carefully or throw yourself into headfirst. It pulls you under, fills your lungs, wraps around you like the warmest, deepest, most terrifying embrace. And yet, you don’t fight it. 

You don’t swim away. You let it take you because there’s something beautiful in the surrender, something in the way it swallows you whole and makes you feel more alive than ever.

    Valentine’s Day is celebrated because love has always been a big deal for people, and over time, different traditions have shaped it into what it is today. It started with St. Valentine, a Roman priest who, according to legend, secretly helped couples get married when the emperor had banned it. He was caught and executed on February 14, which later became a day to honor love. Before that, the Romans had a festival called Lupercalia around the same time, which was all about matchmaking and fertility. As time passed, poets like Chaucer and Shakespeare wrote about love and linked it to Valentine’s Day, making it even more romantic. By the 18th century, people started giving love letters and small gifts, which later turned into the chocolates, flowers, and fancy dates we see today. Even though companies make a lot of money from it now, people still celebrate because love is important, and having a day to show it makes things feel extra special.

    That’s why we celebrate Valentine’s Day. Not because of chocolates or flowers or the kind of romance they sell in movies, but because love is too big to ignore. It’s been written about, sung about, cried over, chased after, lost, and found again, and still, no one has ever really figured it out. 

    But we try. Every year, we mark the day with whispers and kisses and grand gestures, with quiet devotion and reckless abandon, with tiny notes slipped into pockets and hands that reach for each other in the dark. We do it because love is the one thing in this world that makes us forget who we are and remember who we want to be.

    And how do I show my love? I don’t just say it. I don’t just write it down. I push past my limits, go beyond what I thought I could do, just to reach you. I hold you close and tight, like the universe might split apart if I let go, even when my arms ache, even when my strength falters. I watch you, memorize you, knowing that it’s so pretty when you’re faithful, when you stay, when you let me believe that this moment is real, so I fight to make it last.

    I don’t ask questions. I don’t hesitate. If the tide pulls us under, if everything shifts and changes, I won’t ask you to swim away if the currents take us out. I will push against the waves, against the weight of the ocean, against myself if I have to. Because loving you is not about staying on the shore, safe and still. It’s about diving deeper than I ever thought possible, about trusting that even when I am breathless, even when I am drowning, I will always find the strength to reach for you.

Reference

  Hopler, W. (2019, January 31). Saint Valentine's Story. Learn Religions. https://www.learnreligions.com/st-valentine-patron-saint-of-love-124544