every year as long as I will live

image: mommyaddictedtoscraps

thank you to patricia for sending me this story:

I've got a part-time job as a telemarketer. Not the greatest of jobs but, not working of comission anymore, I've actually started to like it. Everyday I get to talk to people and hear them telling me stories from their lives. Stories I'd never hear if I hadn't tried desperately to sell them a subscription of a newspaper.

A few weeks ago I had a very interesting conversation with an old man.
I asked him if he was interesting in getting a subscription of the local paper. He replied by telling me that if I was wondering why he had hoist the flag it was because his wife would have been turning 85 today if she were still alive.

I told him that I really thought that was a very sweet thing to do. The old man agreed and said "I will keep doing this every year as long as I will live."

While listening to him telling me about his beloved wife a wamth spread in my chest and my eyes were prickling. Eventually I wished him a nice day and ended the call.

I had a smile glued to my face for the rest of the day. Not because he bought the subscription but because of the picture I had stuck in my head of an old man looking up at the flag pole in his backyard and smiling.

This made me believe a little bit in love. True love that lasts forever.

i need

ffffound

the love you have for a best friend

thank you to T for the lovely email + images...

Dear LeLove,

Let me just start off by saying I absolutely adore your blog and look forward to new posts and updates when I'm sitting at my desk at work with nothing to do. ( and luckily its one of the sites I actually have access to.)

I know a lot of the posts are dealing with boyfriend/girlfriend romantic love and relationships. As much as I enjoy reading the cute, sad, touching, amazing stories about this type of love, I think an extremely special form of love has been left out.

The love I am referring to is the love you have for a best friend. It’s unique and so important to have. It’s more than just affection for someone; it’s a deep underlying connection. The comfort of knowing you can tell them everything, and not have worry about being judged. The first person you tell when something exciting happens, or when something scary happens. The person you turn to when you need to vent. The person you can laugh at because they will just laugh back at you. The person you need to tell things to so your brain doesn’t explode. The person who can make you feel better when you’re having a tough day, the one you turn to for advice. . The person you can have full conversations with by merely exchanging glances. And maybe most importantly, the one you tell all your secrets to, especially boy secrets.

Someone once told me they thought it was creepy how my best friends and I said “I love you” to each other often. I told them: I think when you love someone; you can’t help but sound at least a little creepy. Love is love. No matter if it’s for your Mom, your cat, a boy, or your best friend. And when you are lucky enough to have people to love, and be loved, you need to let them know how thankful you are for that, and how much you love them back...

- T.

have a LOVEly weekend

weheartit

i will be away for this long weekend. have a great labor day!

xo

miss her when she’s not there

ffffound

You may not be her first, her last, or her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters? She’s not perfect - you aren’t either, and the two of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can break - her heart. So don’t hurt her, don’t change her, don’t analyze and don’t expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she’s not there." -Bob Marley

thanks kate!

would you...

unknown source

nice guys finish last

image: iacmusic

this is fucking it, you are in love with me

Tonight I am thinking about love. More specifically, love lost. Not even lost, really. Love not realized. Or at least not realized until it was too late.

I have a male friend, Kyle. Kyle emotionally exploded on me tonight. Told me that he’s sick of finishing last, he’s too nice a guy for that. And he was so infuriated that after all these years I hadn’t given him a chance.

This is what happens when you give the guy who doesn’t drink that often a few Buds and a shot of Fernet.

He spoke to me about how he was always there for me, always providing a shoulder to cry on or a bar tab to pick up. Anything I needed, because he was being a caring and good friend. Kyle talked about how he respected everything about me, especially my imperfections. He said my imperfections were what made me perfect for him.

“I even know you’re an alcoholic,” he said. “And I don’t care, you’re still perfect.”

You want to know why nice guys finish last? It’s because they aren’t willing to take a chance, they’re too tied to their rules. They see their girl at her most vulnerable moment, and instead of doing what they perceive as a dick move, they put their arms around her and they hold her. They listen to her weep and they don’t take control of the situation. She’s too precious to cut off. Let her weep.

Let me tell you this: nothing makes a broken woman feel more beautiful than to have a man swoop in and push her up against a wall to tell her how much better she is than that. To kiss her, I mean really kiss her, regardless of what she might think about that. You know why nice guys finish last? It’s because when a guy named Bayne leaves you for no good reason and you feel like you’ve been reduced to nothing, my nice guy won’t come over and say the things I really need to hear to understand that he loves me, I mean really loves me. Us ladies, we know we’re beautiful, we know we’re intelligent, we know we’re worth it and we’ll find “him” someday. What we really need to hear and more importantly feel (at that moment — from you, the nice guy)) is that we’re sexy, that our inner organs that separate us from you guys are actually worth something. That we’re so beautiful that you can’t and don’t care whether or not that kiss you’ve so desperately wanted to plant on us is going to ruin our friendship. We want you, the nice guy, to rebel against your rules and just do what feels right. Take control of the situation and tell us that this is fucking it, you are in love with me. You are so in love with me that you are so unbelievably ready to ruin our friendship for a chance at love. That you are willing to pick up that bat and attempt to hit the ball out of the fucking stadium. Because either you strike out or you hit a home run. No one wants to sit in the dugout. But you don’t. You sit in the dugout and you tell us that we’re pretty, and not fat. That we’re worth it. And that Bayne is just stupid and doesn’t know what he’s missing. You’re too nice. You’re too good of a friend. Be a man. Make the call. Try your best to force us to love you. Because in the end, you’re right. Nice guys do finish last. So how about you buck up and become something else. Because otherwise you’re going to lose us, you’re going to lose me.

Nice guys finish last because they’re pussies.

thanks sally for sending this from: tales from the tenderloin

lol

weheartit

sunday evenings

anna szczekutowicz via ffffound

shower love notes

weheartit

trying to forget you

Things I loved about you

The way you stared at me when I close my eyes, then you closed your eyes and I stared at you

How perfectly your hand fit in mine

How you seemed so strong on the outside, but I could tell you were so sweet on the inside

The way you said I love you, because you sounded so shy

How during that first time we were alone, when we held hands and talked for hours and finally kissed after so long

How you were so interested in my life and what I was doing

How you remembered everything I said to you perfectly

When you texted me randomly (as little as that may be)

When you told me I’m one of the most perfect girls you’ve ever met

How you were too shy to hold my hand, in case I didn’t want you to

The awkward moments - because they weren’t really awkward at all

Sitting at the table with your family and enjoying myself and you

Taking photo booth pictures with you and you made the best faces I’ve ever seen

Getting high together and making weird animal sounds as we walked back to your house

The way you made me feel after we made out for an hour

How you told me I looked great every time we saw each other - despite how untrue I thought it was

How I sat on your lap when we went on the computer together, and your legs fell asleep but you didn’t care, as long as I was sitting that close to you

How even on the coldest nights, you lent me your sweater

How much you have passions for things

Your laugh/smile

How you always made fun of me - I secretly loved it

What a loser you are, because I am too

How you admitted defeat and say sorry when I wouldn’t let you win a fight

The way you made the butterflies in my stomach flutter every time I saw your smile

How much you made me love you.

But now they are things of the past, since we broke up. I’m slowly getting over every one of these ways I loved you by replacing them with things I don’t like about you. I don’t think it’s working too well, though, because I know they will each still be in the back of my head because you were my first love and I will never forget you or a single thing that I loved about you. And truthfully, I still love most of those things. I’ll miss every one of them.

-anonymous submission

you've got a smile

ffffound

you can work through a crisis

Juan Felipe Rubio

an anonymous email sent to me... i know that this is a controversial topic and am curious to hear what you all think about second chances:

dear lelove,

i want to tell you my story about love. it began in may the previous year, when i had a fling with a friend's older brother. at the time, i was so scared of commitment, that i ended it after a short while. i did not have a good explanation for doing this, and it was very sudden. we did not talk for all summer. when summer was gone, i heard he had gotten a new girlfriend. i was happy for him, as i just wanted to be friends with him, and a while later i contacted him so we could become friends again. the next half year we got closer and closer as friends, and i started to consider him my best friend, with whom i could share anything. but when winter was arriving i realized that my earlier feelings for him were coming back. of course, i did not tell him, as he was not available, but i am sure that we both felt a tension between us, a tension which we could not further explore due to his relationship.

suddenly, one day, when we were hanging out, he blurted out that he and his girlfriend had broken up that day. i was in one way shocked, as i had the assumption that their relationship was perfect, but also relieved, as we now did not have to suppress our emotions anymore. a few days later, on my birthday, i went to his house to be with him. at the moment he opened the door, we started kissing, and one thing led to another. after a while, our relationship grew and became known to our friends and family. everything was going great, until one day, i got my acceptance letter from the school i wanted to get into. The problem: it was in another country.

our relationship continued, but one day, a few months after i got the letter, he revealed to me that he had been unfaithful with two girls i knew. it was only once, and they did not go all the way, but i still felt it as a backstabbing and was very hurt. yet still, i did not break up with him, as i was still very much in love with him.

i am currently packing for traveling to the school which i was accepted to, and also working my way through the "crisis" in our relationship. i had always thought that if my boyfriend cheated on me, i would break up at once. but i gave him another chance, and i am learning to trust him again. and that is why i wrote to le love. to show people that even though your world seems to have collapsed. and you can work through a crisis. and most of all: i do believe that everybody deserves a second chance.

- anonymous

i want to...

?

i

ffffound

i have been struggling for four years what some people struggle their entire lives with, being in love with someone you cant seem to be with. I have come to realize in these past four years, that love is not as hard as some people make it to be. When you are in the infinite state of infatuation, a feeling no word or emotion could ever come close to describing, you feel as though this life is worth living. And when you lose it, its unreal. Its a pain i cant describe. Every muscle in my body tenses and my heart pounds so hard i feel like it will kill me. The thing i have learned most, is that this pain proves to me that my heart and felt a happiness i may never feel again. I now know from my suffering that the time period in which i did feel this happiness was worth it. There are few moments in life in which i believe we find true happiness, a moment in which everything stands still and every emotion thought or worry is gone, and your a single soul floating in a world of ecstasy. Its a feeling i wouldnt trade for anything. There is no real conclusion to this, because its undescribable. I do know, that this pain i have felt, this feeling of hopelessness only shows me, i did once fall in love. And every ounce of faith in me, is devoted to the thought of reliving the happiness. I will always have hope.

-anonymous

When I think about you not being here with me (I actually think about you all the time), it makes me sick to my stomach. I miss you so much it physically hurts. Whenever I talk about you, I feel a knot in my throat. I can't picture myself with anyone but you. And time goes by and does it's cray thing but, how I feel doesn't change, it never goes away, even when I hate you for leaving me, for not loving me enough, it doesn't weather. How I cried myself to sleep wishing I could feel you close to me one more time. How I wish I could just stop feeling because it hurts so much. I want to move on, I want to walk away and just remember you every now and then as someone I was fond of. I'm tired and frustrated because I don't understand you, I don't know what it is that you want or feel... sometimes I think you don't even know that yourself. I can go and conquer the world and make my wildest dreams come true but, in the end you are not here. I feel as if I lost a part of me, you took and I want it back. I play it cool, I cry when no one sees me, I dream of you. I'm in hell.

-nic