That's what he said...

(to Adele Foucher)

1821

Paris,

My dearest,

When two souls, who have sought each other for however long in the throng, have finally found each other... a union, fiery and pure as they themselves are... begins on earth and continues forever in heaven. 

This union is love, true love... a religion, which deifies the loved one, whose life comes from devotion and passion, and for whom the greatest sacrifices are the sweetest delights.

This is the love that you inspire in me.. Your soul is made to love with the purity and passion of angels; but perhaps it can only love another angel, in which case I must tremble with apprehension.

Yours forever,

Victor Hugo

(Excerpt from Love Letters of Great Men Vol. 1 by John C. Kirkland). 

I couldn't hold back the tears after reading this letter. I had spent a long weekend hoping that I could distance myself from the strongest feelings I have ever experienced for a man in my entire life only to find myself wrapped up in the words of another one. There are days where I am the strong independent woman everyone expects me to be. Those are the days where I realize that he isn't coming back. There are days where I'm weak and I have to shed a tear to keep the rest of me from tearing apart. Those are the days where I realize not only is he not coming back, but I am left alone in love. Those are the hard days and those are the days where I love to curl up with a book and read the words of men who felt the same connection I lost in the matter of months. 

I'm human, and I'll be damned if I hear another person to tell me to "let go" or that it wasn't that special in the first place. Who the hell are we to judge when love strikes in the first place? What makes a man qualified to decide whether the love we feel in our heart is real or imaginary? Maybe that is why God counseled us to never judge or 'lest be judge'. At the end of the day, how many of us can stand up and testify that the love one has for another is false? How many of us can burn down the walls of another man's heart without feeling the barriers built around our own fade away?