This is an open letter to Distance and Time as I learn to handle the trials of a long distance relationship. It's hard, it sucks and it's thrown me for a loop quite honestly. I felt the need to call upon these two forces as I learn to love from half-way around the world.

Listen Here miles of Distance and months of Time,

I fell deep in love one summer day laying in grass swept with dew. Me and him grew like vines twisting our fates into each other’s and before I could contest we were one in union, one heart.

As our love grew so did our ambitions. Adventure called to me from foreign lands and I was whisked off on a cloud into a new world of fantasy. I was happy here. At least, half of me was happy. Half of me was missing, far away stranded on the other side of the globe. The jokes weren’t as funny and the art wasn’t as beautiful without being able to share them with my person. So I realized I must call upon you, my dear friend Distance. What can you do? All this space between me and my love and it's you who stretch us apart. It is you who lays the ground and oceans between us two beloveds. Trapped in a long-distance relationship, and Distance was our cage.

I cannot say I am too fond of you. Distance, that wily breaker of hearts, has disassembled my thoughts and forced me to see the universe in new ways. Everything looks different from far away. Problems appear smaller and the intensity of our dilemmas are lessened with space. But the best things, even you, Distance, cannot swallow the light from. Despite the fact that love is actually a massive swirling ball of fire, simultaneously delightful and dangerous, you have made it a twinkling star in the most remote parts of space. From raging flames to a remnant sparkle, that is the power of Distance.

What is the point of all this space? Perspective, you say? Insisting that isolation reinforces a greater understanding of our circumstances. Well, I suppose. But what about your comrade in arms, the one we call Time? He tortures me most of all. Distance I can conquer with the wheels of a car, the wings of a plane, even with my own two legs. But Time is perhaps the one abstraction that none of us can transcend. You must wait and it takes what it takes, theres no rushing Time. So days, weeks, months flitter by on Time’s proviso. So I wait. And he waits. We countdown while trying to live in the moment all the same. Its not easy but it’s worth it and thats what we hang our hats on, the worth of a love like this.

Time and space are natural entities and we cannot fight these barriers that tear a single heart into two beating halves, leaking blood and light and life and love all over the carpeted aisles of this plane.

It has been so long, and my love and I are so far. Even so, I do not worry. We have won this battle with Time and Distance before and now we are only stronger. We know the trials you two brothers will throw our way, missing special moments and coping through hardships alone. Still yet, we know how to triumph against them. With this: two minds, flexible in means; while two hearts, stiff on goals. We will not fight you. We will learn to move and dance with you. Rather, we will swim the current, not struggle against it. Let it carry us to the end of Time and Distance and once again be as one. Fighting will only make it harder, more painful and thus I surrender. Moreover, I accept your challenge and am eager to prove how strong the power of unity can be. When all's said and done, my love and I will still be one.

Sincerely,

One half of a heart