The first time I looked into my partner's eyes in love, I thought I saw all the colors of the rainbow in them, and then for a moment I thought I only saw one - the color of love. Five years later, this color can no longer be detected only with the eyes, but with every cell of my being, with every breath I take next to him in the morning.
Love after five years it is no longer that initial, yearning, burning love. No more sparks that shake your nerves and keep you up all night. It is something much deeper, more subtle, but still more powerful. This is mature love.
As the wise writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said: “To love is not to look at each other, but to look together in the same direction.” This is what after five years you really get it. Love is more than just a passionate search for pleasure in the embrace of another, it is also a shared life, a shared dream, a common direction, even when you are on different paths.
I like to remember that anecdote when we decided to go hiking in the mountains in the middle of summer. It was a climb that was easily passable for him, but for me it was a real challenge. When I stumbled, tired and on the verge of despair, he turned to me, offered me his hand and said: "We are not going to get to the top, but to spend this day together." It doesn't matter how fast we go, it's important that we go together." It was a lesson that shaped my understanding of love and our relationship.
In these five years I learned that love is sometimes silent. It's not always all about grand gestures, spectacular gifts or passionate hugs. Sometimes love is when someone helps you wash the dishes after a long day, when they prepare for you coffee exactly like that, the way you like it best, or in the fact that he grabs your hand in the middle of a walk and tells you how much he loves you.
I also learned that love takes work. It's not always easy. Sometimes you have to make compromises, sometimes you have to admit a mistake, sometimes you have to talk about difficult things. But it is this work, this effort, that also makes love so special. Every moment we spend together, every step we take together deepens this bond between us.
Mature love is as deep as the ocean, as infinite as the universe, and constantly surprises me with the new depths and dimensions it can reach. After five years, love landed. It is no longer that turbulent, volatile force. It is strong, stable, it is like a home, in which I am happy to land again and again. Love after five years is peace. It is a shelter. It's homeliness. It's loyalty. It's knowing that there is someone by your side who loves you unconditionally, no matter what life throws at you.
And trust me, I wouldn't want it any other way.
