Grand Romantic Gestures

For some reason I've been thinking about grand romantic gestures today. So I asked around and I heard a few examples. One friend proposed to her girlfriend. Another friend moved across states to be with her then girlfriend. (Funny enough both girlfriends mentioned are my exes) But I've been thinking about the most romantic thing I ever did for a girl. I've done some sweet things. (in my opinion) I've written poetry, bought flowers (expensive ones at that), fixed dinners and done whatever romantic things I could. But really the most romantic, most grand gesture was writing a 1 and 1/2 page love letter to my then girlfriend. And we're not just talking any love letter, remember I was a literature major. This was all flowy and flowery and well you'll see. So in honor of  grand romantic gestures, I'm sharing the letter I wrote.

10th October 2005


My Dearest Love,


My heart beats rapidly at the thought that I might address you as such. I had hoped that upon the writing of this letter your heart would have felt mine beat against it once more. I am sorrowed by the distance that still lies between us, but my soul is hopeful that this may soon be remedied. I pray nightly to feel your love in my sleep and it is my deepest wish that you pray the same. My soul often aches for you, yet my heart continues through the days, powered by the knowledge of your love. My mind is powerless to master the words needed to express how I feel for you. Yet nonetheless my pen continuously glides across the paper in a ritualistic dance performed solely for you. Through my mind remains unable to express my love for you, with every beat my heart broadcasts it to the listening world. I implore you, my love, that should you ever doubt the depth of my emotion that you simply listen to my heart.


24th October 2005


Much time has passed since I embarked on this journey my love, yet I remain confident that soon my greetings will reach you. I have dreamt often of you since I last gazed upon your beauty and upon each sunrise I wake with tears in my heart, sorrowful at the realization that once more my dreams have deceived me. I pray that you know that I look upon you as one would the North Star, you are my constant, my direction, my guide. I turn my gaze to you when I am wandering this infinite plane. My dependence upon you is the motivation for my life. For several brief moments, independent though they were, I was truly devastated with the thought that I may never feel your embrace again. I love you my dearest.
While others hurl curses upon the almighty, I praise him for by his grace he has presented me with an angel whose face is your own. I fear that before I complete my tribute to your goodness I must visit with the land of Morpheus. Before I venture until the realm of dreams I share with you my greatest fear, that all my memories of us, that all the memories are simply dreams and that soon I will wake into a nightmarish world where I have neither you nor your love.


7th November, 2005


My darling, within this letter I grant to you the ability to read my soul. Be cautious though, my heart, in some places my soul is quite torn and tattered, but do not worry, for every day I have you my soul is repaired a little further. Though you may doubt it darling you are making my life whole once more. A year and a half ago the skies I looked upon were permanently dark, mere months later I met you, I fell in love with you, and my skies cleared up because of you. My heart, you have saved me from my greatest damage, myself. For that I am forever grateful to you. I love you with all the love in the world. I pray that this letter finds you quickly and safely and that it brightens the darkness cast into your heart by the distance between us. I hope that you may feel my love more strongly now then upon the first time I told you of my love.


From your heart,
-J



As you can tell, it took me a while to right the letter. Beyond that I went through a series of drafts and in the end I wrote it on paper from a sketch pad, attempting to make it look like parchment, and I used a fancy pen to write it out. I sealed the letter itself with red wax and an old ring I have.

The then girlfriend and I were living about an hour apart and I was trying to do what I could to reassure her of how I felt. She was the first person I think I ever really loved. The first person I ever pictured a future with. The first person I ever wanted a future with. The first person I did a lot of things with. And she meant a lot to me, in some ways she still does.

But anyway, what's the most romantic thing you've done for someone you loved? Or what's the most romantic thing you've had done for you?

Night folks.
- JR