When these words were spoken before, they were repeated pleas to affirm what I so wanted then. The empty response was barely the remnant of an echo. Reciting them again and again diminished their meaning. Those words once powerful became a powerless please from me.

Despite their enormity, who knew these words could be cut by hollow affirmations? That they could also be taken from people who did not know the weight of them on my lips? Each time these words were broken from me, they were hollowed of their meaning.

When silent affirmations turned into quiet whispers, you took these empty words and made them hallow. The pleas turned to peace and the repetition of the words were not made from echoes, but from fulfilled wishes.

Safe in sacred spaces, we share these words in time with the beating of our chests. And with each repetition, may our words leave our lips to reverberate from our chests.

Perhaps, as my final plea, may the joy we create radiate from us for each day that I'm blessed to be with you.