Falling In Love

The beauty of it is you never see it coming. It gives no warning and heeds no uncertainties. Love perches upon our minds and sends tingles to our face forcing uncontrollable smiles. And then it envelops you – so no matter where you turn all you see is love.

I pass it everyday in the projects that border my apartment building. I hear it in the homeless man’s chant on 9th and 56th Street. I taste it in my milky morning coffee from Amy’s Bread. I catch glimpses of it in the glittered high rises at 7pm. I feel it in the scoop neck dress from a Soho boutique. It hums from the street as the cars beat over pot-holed pavement. It pours from the roaring 1 train headed to the Union Square market. It dances around me in the shuffle of the East Village at 3am. It shines from the lights and hustle of Midtown. It peaks out at me from the hundreds of strange eyes I pass everyday. This, my friends, is falling in love.

People say New York makes you meaner, colder. I was afraid that this might be true until recently. You see, I had forgotten what it was like to be in love. I was beginning to think that I no longer had it in me. I’d be the last to admit that living in New York is a struggle -- but it is. There is a certain unexpected disconnect one experiences when first living here. In a city with so many different people and so much amusement, it makes it difficult to develop substantial personal relationships with people. But when you discover those relationships and when you find your place here, life becomes much more rich than you expected. I’m in love with all that is here in New York and it just took me some time away to realize it.