To the queer couple I witnessed last Saturday at a coffee shop in Stirling
I saw you coming into the shop – your movements, your smiles, the twinkle in your eyes told me immediately that you were in love.
I know people fall in love all the time, but it’s often such a subtle thing… I don’t think most people allow themselves to feel it so much that their love becomes a light for the people around them.
But you, YOU – I could have basked for days on the warmth and light radiating from you.
Your interlaced fingers making a declaration over the table. Your dazzling gaze wondering: “how lucky are we to have found each other?”
And maybe you were indeed aware of your fortune, because you were not that young…
You were old enough to have had many experiences of heartbreak and disappointment, and to recognise what a miracle your connection was.
Maybe I should have been sad that this was not happening to me, that I was not the one being treasured like you were – but if I’m completely honest, at that moment I didn’t feel myself as someone completely apart from you.
I have felt it before: witnessing someone else’s love can wrap you and warm you, and cuddle and carry you as if it were you who were receiving that love – but only if you allow yourself to feel it.
But my story has not ended, because I was lucky twice. When you left, I was able to see your reflection walking away on the shop window.
I saw you stop and face each other (maybe to say something, maybe to drink each other in), and finally lean in for a long kiss.
It was the moment that makes you hold your breath in the movies… You kissed and the world rushed around you, completely unaware of the magic happening in front of their eyes. And you, in your happy little bubble, completely oblivious to the world and its noise.
Is it possible to get drunk on other people’s love?
For the rest of my day, I walked around the city like under a spell…
And I wondered: what would happen to all our relationships if love was easy to spot? What would happen if we slowed down enough to notice it around us?
I believe witnessing more love would change the world in profound ways.
Thank you, dear queer couple, for reminding me to pay more attention.
Photo by Anton Chernyavskiy on Unsplash
