Love is...

Love is unconditional

Love is gentle

Love is kindness

It took years to escape the mask

That blinded my judgement

It took years to know

How good love could be

What love was supposed to be

But only with the right person

Love isn’t the silent treatment

Love isn’t restriction

Love isn’t cruelty

Love is being with someone

Even if you aren’t talking

Just enjoying their presence

Love is encouragement

Telling someone that they can

Not “you can’t”

Love is letting someone be themselves

Not trying to make them into something else

Love is a warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart

Not nights of crying and wondering why

Or what you did wrong

I would have never known this

Had the mask not been pulled from my eyes

Had “love” not been redefined for me

Now I’m free and my heart isn’t heavy

It beats happily

Without the restriction of what I thought love was