Dear _____,

At one point or another, everyone writes about love. It seems to be inevitable. We write about love, read about love, make art about love… make sacrifices for love, wage wars for love, make peace for love… better ourselves in love, lose ourselves in love… you get the idea. Love turns into this thing that becomes intangible – a feeling that we reach to meet with eager hands, unaware of what it may do to us. In all of love’s dimensions, whatever form it may take, there is always something beautiful in it. I mean, there’s a reason why we continue to talk about it, write about it – the list could go on forever.

Though I feel like it’s all to easy to make love this giant, over-encompassing thing. With all of these emotions tied to love and all of these things it can do to us… it’s no wonder that it can be seen as daunting sometimes. It’s as though love is only seen in its magnitudes and its easy to forget its subtleties. A little bit ago, I read a book reviewer in which the reviewer praised the author’s “displays of quiet love”… and I loved that. Quiet love. In a world of grand showcases of love – where love has come to mean this big thing, this loud display of affection that must have an audience – there is something so miraculous in a little gesture, sometimes overlooked but always there. These are sometimes the actions lost in translation of love, but they always end up expressing it. It is this that says “I love you” the loudest, in the most meaningful way. And at its core – it’s simple.

Because love exists simply too. It’s an extra cup of coffee made in the morning without asking for it. It’s in making extra servings to ensure everyone has a chance to enjoy a meal. It’s reaching out to your friends just because you thought of them. It’s smiling and wishing “good morning” to those you see in your day-to-day life. It’s holding the door open for the next person. It’s picking up something that someone dropped. It’s an unprompted text checking in on someone you haven’t spoken to in a while. It can be as simple as being there and listening to someone talk about how they are, how their day is. It’s these little things that say so much.

And all of these things – it’s not limited to a spouse or partner. Quiet love isn’t only for one person in our lives. It can be for you from me, or for me from you. It can be to anyone, from anyone. Because don’t we all deserve that, in one way or another? We may not always see it – I know I’m guilty of this, and I’m sorry – but it has the possibility of always being there. Sometimes it’s only a thought, the mere act of thinking of another person. It can also be moments where we occupy another’s space, them doing the same by simply showing up, being there. Again, there’s a subtlety to it.

I suppose what I’m trying to say here is that it can be anything. It can even take the form of a letter: our thoughts written down and expressed to someone else, to let them know they are thought of, that they matter to another person, and that they are worth the love it takes to put it all down on paper.

Originally written 04-08-2025

Accompanying music: See You by Christopher Bear, Daniel Rossen