tell me about it

I dived into love with you.

I stood on the diving board, rough wood, splinters curling up at the edges. My toes were small and white as they gripped the edge of the plank like a dying man grasps at his last breath. I remember looking down and thinking, I don’t have to jump. I can still step back. I could…

And then you smiled and unfurled your arms and I felt my heart kick into life like you had turned an ignition and gunned the engine. You just stood there, with your arms wide open, waiting for me to take that first step.

So I did. I stumbled off the board. It was fear and terror and exhilaration and the best feeling I’d ever had, plummeting like an anvil through the air and wondering if you’d be there when I reached the bottom.

And I plunged into you, the deepest pool I’d ever sunk into. You gathered me up and enfolded me in your arms and never let me go. You take me in, you steady me, you warm me.

You are my lifeline. Love stitches us together like an invisible seam. Our hands fit together, halves of a whole, until I can’t tell where I end and where you begin, wound around each other like the curve of yin and yang.

What if I fall? I’d asked.

I’d catch you, you’d replied simply. I’d catch you.

You did.