I am a lover. A lover with a painful love.

It doesn't take much to touch a life, but when a life is touched, it's the touch that means more than life itself. The touch of a hand, the touch of an expression, the touch of a look. That's all it really took - a look - to know the destiny of two hearts, that first look into each others eyes to finally find where eternity lies.

When first asked to be a lover, you accept the status, the level, in which you are stepping into in the relationship. When two souls collide with such energy, they know it means only one thing. But, it's the "one thing" which keeps the lover at that level because that "one thing", both know, may not be realized. It's that "one thing" that keeps them from being everything they could be. They could take town by storm. They could make a difference wherever they went. They could be so good together, but that "one thing" is always there. Both wanting it. Both knowing it may not become that, because, after all, one was only asked to be a lover.

It's not easy being a lover. No one could ever pretend that it is. But certain things are accepted when you become a lover. It's accepted that the other goes "home" each night and wakes each morning, in the comfort zone that the other has come to know over the years. It's accepted that the amount of time shared together is limited, at best. A minute here, a few moments there. And the lover takes in and stores in the heart each minute, everything shared, because each minute, every moment, everything shared, the lover knows could be the last. This is accepted by the lover because the lover knows and has seen where eternity lies. That's what a lover does.

A lover loves or they couldn't be called a lover. A lover loves with every  breath, every heartbeat, every word. It's hard to twist a lover's love because a lover's love is true. A lover's love is complex, yet simple. Complex because of the circumstances that arise and/or surround such a relationship; complex because of the situation that a lover accepts; complex because of the stigma and stereotype placed on the situation a lover accepts, complex because of the push and pull of these same forces. A lover's love is simple because when the lover says, "I LOVE YOU," it's YOU the lover loves; it's YOU the lover cares about. Simple because when you take away all the circumstances, all the situations, all the stigma, what's left for the lover is love in its eternal form because the lover has seen and knows where eternity lies.

A lover's love is like no other, for in saying, "I LOVE YOU," there is only YOU and no other. NOTHING can ever change this for the lover because a lover's love is loyal. A lover's love knows the dilemmas and fears the other faces with this kind of relationship, and a lover's love, for the sake of the other, will allow the other what is right for the other's heart. Because of the level a lover takes, a lover's love is always ready, always willing, always loving, to do what's best for the other, no matter how long the other takes, because a lover's love knows no time for it has seen and knows where eternity lies.

When a lover says, "I LOVE YOU," it is "I" who has, and always will, love "YOU." No matter where "YOU' go, no matter what "YOU" do, no matter what "YOU" say, no matter -- it is "I" who loves "YOU."

It's a lover's love, that having seen eternity, having touched it and felt it, having held it even for a moment, knowing where eternity lies and that it may never come around again, it is a lover's love that will go on for the other.

That's the way of a lover.