Leap

During my first semester of college there was a writing class, English 111, that I was required to take. I ended up LOVING my teacher! In fact, she's probably my favorite teacher so far. Anyway, a few weeks into the class we read an excerpt from an essay written by Brian Doyle. The essay is called "Leap" and was written about September 11th as seen from the people on the ground outside the trade center towers. More specifically it's about watching people jump from the towers--two people in particular. When we first read it in class, it was so powerful and even now I can't read it without getting choked up. But it was this next passage especially that I love so much. It might be strange, but I used to doodle it over and over again all the time during classes. Today was the first time in months that I'd even thought of it, but I want to share it with you. It goes:

I keep going back to his hand and her hand, nestled in each other with such extraordinary, ordinary, succinct, ancient, naked, perfect, stunning, simple, ferocious love.

Read it again. The second time, think about every adjective as it pertains to love. I've had this passage memorized for months; drawn it over, and over, and over, and over again. But every time I do, it just...it's just so beautiful, it makes my heart hurt. When I finally do get married, that's the kind of love I want. 

 The rest of the essay is really short and very, very powerful and can be found here