Falling in Love

The first time I fell absolutely, violently, passionately in love … my senses were so heightened that one day we were walking through the park and I swear, I actually heard a leaf drop to the ground.

I know I am falling in love because I think of you and I turn hollow inside, and the world kind of veers … like it goes a little bit sideways for an instant.

Romantic love 'happens'; it is not brought about; one falls in love. The person is obsessed with the loved one and is unable to concentrate on anything else. The person loses all desire to remain independent, and instead desires to merge and subsume … into the other.

You've been in love; you know what it's like. It's a sense of delight, not just in the person you love, but in all people, in yourself, in life. Suddenly you see beauty, excitement everywhere. You're not afraid to express your love: passionately, gently, in words, or in silence. And you feel strong, generous, fully alive.

One inevitable consequence of falling deeply in love is the realization that no one has yet adequately described the torment and ecstasy of your condition - and the knowledge that you will try and fail to do so.