Dear Marie,

You ever feel like you want to say so much to someone, but you can't think of even one word that adequately begins to convey the depth of what you feel? Sometimes words just can't do the job, but with no other socially acceptable avenue of expressing your passion, you'll just write them anyway...

I'd like to shout it all, but I'm afraid nothing intelligible would come out. Even if it did, is anyone really listening? Maybe that's what drives people to madness... They are perfectly sane, but their inability to express the feelings in their hearts leads them to do things that seem crazy to the rest of us.

The result of my insanity is the aimless ramblings you find yourself sifting through right now. Perhaps all I want to say is that there is a side to me that is dying to come out and it has your name written all over it.

Determination is quite an inconvenient personal attribute when the thing for which you are determined is categorically unattainable. But fools press on, and without foolishness in this world, there would be no one to admire the beauty of it all.

In darkness did I once reside, alone yet unafraid. Now that I've seen the light, my love, my confidence decayed. Before you I knew happiness, but with you I knew bliss. If we shall never meet again, I'll not forget your kiss.

I now know what a day without you feels like and I don't wish to experience another. I promised I would never leave you and that I would wait for you. It is this promise which shall keep me going through the years ahead. To the ends of the earth I may travel, but when the lights have dimmed, the noise has ceased, and the troubles are over, there will always be you on my horizon- calling me forward. To the river... To the valley... To the place where we meet again.

You will grow and you will think upon me as but a memory. Perhaps it is best. The brief intersection of our lives has changed mine irreversibly. I shall never feel, think, or be the same for having known you. You have revealed in me a wealth of emotion and inspired me to express it in any way I can. I should be grateful for at least that. Your smile has moved my soul to tears. Your laugh has stirred the most tender nerves of my being. Your eyes have reduced the chaos of my mind and the complexity of my thoughts to a murmur and left me in total wonder. If I should never see them again, I will be glad to have a memory. To be but a thought in your mind is more than I deserve.

My friend, my muse, my confidant, my love- we will meet again, if only in our dreams.