The Days of Youth and Love

Felicia could just make out the silhouette of the old house through the trees. It looked so cozy nestled in the valley below. The pink hues of the sunset filtered through the wispy branches filled with spring blooms creating a radiant glow around the scene. It was pretty enough to be a picture, and Felicia didn’t want to take her eyes off it. She squeezed Andrew’s hand and said without taking her gaze off the scene before them, “It’s so wonderfully comforting to feel a sense of belonging. Some people search their whole lives to find a place that feels like home, and here I’ve had a home given to me. Sometimes I’m so overwhelmed by the thought that I can’t put it into words.”

Felicia needn’t see or hear Andrew to know that he understood what she meant. The two of them were alike in so many ways. Even if they weren’t, she knew that Andrew’s love for her was enough for him to understand. Felicia was so overcome with a serene sort of happiness, that a tear slipped down her cheek before she could stop it. She turned to see Andrew looking at her with tears in his eyes, too.

She stroked his cheek and smiled at him. He returned the smile as he said, “People search but will never find what they can’t see. You see the world for what it is: beautiful and full of life and love because that’s what you want from the world. Don’t ever let anyone destroy the innocent joy that’s inside you.” Andrew pulled her hand from his cheek and kissed her delicate fingers.

They lingered at the top of the hill in silent meditation, neither one wanting the moment to end. As the night sky slowly awakened replacing the pink hues of sunset with the twinkle of starlight, the full moon basked them in a silvery glow. The home in the valley beckoned to them with promises of shelter, warmth, and a bed to rest in, but home is more than merely a building in the days of youth and love.

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