As children, we experience love in it’s purest form. There are no expectations, no complicated over-thinking, no what if this or what if that, no he said, no she said. No scars or hurt to mar the existence of this love. Love just is. It’s light, airy, free, full of joy and happiness.

Then we become teenagers. At first, love is still like it was when we were children. And then.

Oh and then.

Then someone we love, for the first time, does not love us back. Or does something to hurt us. Or pushes us far away after saying they loved us. Or uses love to get us to do something they want. Suddenly, love finds itself with a weight attached to it. It may still float but instead of a cloud high in the sky, it’s a helium balloon with a weight tied to the string. The balloon wants to fly away but can’t escape the weight holding to down.

The weight holding you down can crush your chest, your soul, your mind. But recovery is possible. The hurt fades with time and the heart heals.

Then we fall in love time and again. Eventually the balloon you’re holding ends up with tangles, a ton of weights, and is an impossible conundrum. Try as you might, you just can’t untangle the string or break the weights free from the string.

The weight of love continues to increase and can drag us down with it if we are not careful.

But then, some of us are fortunate to meet someone amazing. Someone who helps us untangle the string. Who helps us remove the weights from the string.

So once again, our balloon flies high. Maybe even higher than it ever has in the past.

If we are really lucky, we find someone who allows our love to return to the love we knew as a child, someone who sets us free and allows us to float up into the sky like a white and fluffy cloud, happy and free to be ourselves. Someone who lets us just be and loves us for us despite all our inherent flaws and imperfections. A love which takes your breath away, fills you with anticipation, joy, freedom and is ultimately beyond description. It just is. It’s deep, breathtaking, enviable, and beyond containment.

This is the love we spend our lives chasing but only a few of us are fortunate to capture.

If you’ve found love like that, don’t let it go. No matter what.