TWELVE

My dear,

You're like a spring in my life.
A fresh morning dew. A new beginning.

You came coloring up my life when I was busy coloring people's life. You healed me when I was busy healing other people. You healed me of wounds in my heart that I wasn't even aware of.

In this fast-paced world, I often found myself dazed and unable to keep up with the world around me. Then, you came and took my hand helping me in picking up my pace. Yet, you would also take it slow at times and lay down beside me on the green grass watching the clouds that moved idly across the clear blue sky when we need to.

You tell me that I have a soft and gentle heart. But let me tell you that your heart is all that and more. For it is also strong and brave.

You will cry when someone else cries telling his heartbroken story. You will curl up in my embrace to find comfort when you watch a movie in which a dog dies. But you will also be the person to run and protect the lady next door if the loansharks ever come for her again. You won't give up and won't feel insulted when that grandpa in the nursing home you volunteered in refuses to eat or be fed by you, or when he slaps the bowl out of your hand.

You are gentle and caring, but quirky and weird at the same time.

Every time I come home, drained of energy, from work, you know how to put a smile on my face with your silly acts and jokes that I can even feel the dimple on my cheek deepening. I will always be fueled up in no time.

And I know I'm not the only one who feels that way. People around you can testify to it too.

You heal more people than I do. Not with medicine. Not with magic. Just your smile is enough to lit up the world of those around you.

Your sincere heart is enough to heal the wounds in their heart just like mine. And I'm proud of that.

I'm proud to know that I own that very heart. That you are mine as I am yours.

And I promise you this: I will treasure and protect it with my whole life. Never will I let your heart be broken as long as I live.

Because you, my dear, are an irreplaceable gem in my heart.