The Feels

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are: cold ~ stand still ~ ice ~ new year ~ eskimo kiss

They were submitted by: http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com

*no lips were harmed in the making of this blog

__________________________________

She stands there in the cold, waiting and looking for him. Despite the freezing temperatures the new year has shown so far and the ice clinging to the surface of the parking lot, every inch of her skin is on fire with anticipation. The last few months of imagining this moment and all that might follow for the next few days has been frustratingly tense, an exquisite ache of sorts that could only be relieved by one person.

That’s when she sees him crossing the pavement. Time stands still stretching out the final few moments keeping them apart for what seems like an eternity while her heart is beating so hard in her chest she feels like a cartoon character with a heart-on. The swirl of competing emotions—lust, adoration, awe, relief, and nervousness--is almost too much to handle when he finally sees her and makes eye contact. The connection hangs in the air between them, electric and intense, as he crosses those last few feet and stops in front of her, smiling in a way that makes her weak in the knees.

She looks up, hair a mess from the wind, and one eye covered as always. It seems unreal to finally be here after all the waiting and wanting, and for a moment, she wants to pinch herself to see if she’s dreaming. Then she thinks, fuck it…if it’s a dream, let it play. The air is warm between them, both speechless. Standing there in front of him, she gets the full picture of just how short she is in comparison, how much she likes his hands and the intensity in his eyes, how blue they are. His beard is a bit longer than when they first met, and his hat makes her smile her awkward, crooked smile. She’s fond of seeing him in that one.

The awe she feels looking at him in real time, face to face has her momentarily paralyzed. Chills wash over her skin, the silence laden with desire she has never felt so intensely, both hers and his. The way he looks at her…the feeling in that gaze wraps around her like a blanket pulling her in until she finally feels herself lift on her toes and reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck and bring him closer.

She stops just millimeters from his lips. Their noses touch barely almost like an Eskimo kiss. She bites her bottom lip like he has seen a 1000 times before but the strength of emotion in that moment must have gotten to him. He grabs her around the small of her back pulling her in close, so close she can feel just how much he wants her before their lips finally meet. The butterflies that have been so nervously fluttering in the deepest parts of her swarm now flooding her with need. She pulls back, though, breaking the kiss and staring at him intently, searching to see if he feels the same. Her need is mirrored back to her and she gasps. His hand reaches up coming to rest on the back of her neck while his other hand moves the hair out of her eyes. He kisses her forehead.

And she melts.

_____________________________________________

Links to the other “Use Your Words” posts:



http://bakinginatornado.com Baking In A Tornado

http://berghamchronicles.blogspot.com/ The Bergham Chronicles

http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com/ Spatulas on Parade

http://www.renasworld.com/ Rena’s World

http://dinoheromommy.com/ Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

http://notthatsarahmichelle.blogspot.com Not That Sarah Michelle

http://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch Confessions of a part time working mom

http://www.southernbellecharm.com Southern Belle Charm

http://www.someoneelsesgenius.com Someone Else’s Genius

http://www.angrivatedmom.wordpress.com/ The Angrivated Mom

http://climaxedtheblog.blogspot.com Climaxed

http://mybrainonkids.net My Brain on Kids

That Feeling You Get

So today is Secret Subject Swap--one of my favorite blog challenges. Here's how it works: For this week, 15 brave bloggers signed up and submitted a secret prompt. We were each given a prompt of our own about two weeks ago. Today, we simultaneously divulge our interpretations of the prompts we were given. No one knows who got what or what the other prompts are, so today's the big reveal, so to speak. I'll include links to all the other bloggers at the end so you can comb through and see how it goes. Happy reading!

My prompt is:

Do you believe in love at first sight?

It was submitted by: http://www.JuiceboxConfession.com


________________________________________________________________________


I believe in lust at first sight.

I also firmly believe that many an individual confuses lust for love which is the only thing that can really explain why so many people in my Facebook feed or even in life around me seem to fall in love on the first date and fall out of it just as quickly before moving on to the next love of their lives.

You can desire someone, lust for them, feel a yearning to know them on both an intimate and carnal level when you see them; I do believe that. It happens to me often when I see a chubby, tattooed, and bearded man. I shamelessly objectify, stare slack-jawed, and often do triple or quadruple takes depending on the beard in question, but that’s not love. Love is far too complicated and immeasurable to happen in an instant like that, to be based on looks and first impressions alone.

Love builds over time as you get to know a person and figure out who they are. The intimacy of the details shared with one another about your life journeys bond you. The other person’s quirks become endearing even if still annoying. There’s a passion in the knowing, and with romantic love, there’s a passion in exploring each other’s bodies as well as minds. Love is not something that snaps perfectly into place in the blink of an eye because it’s based on who that person is--the past, the present, personality, character flaws, hopes, dreams, passions, goals, idiosyncrasies, hobbies, and needs. Saying that love is so one dimensional that it can happen on sight alone really does a disservice to the state of truly loving someone, of sacrificing for them, worrying, caring, and being their champion in good times and bad.

Perhaps there are some mothers who contend they fell in love with their children on sight, but that’s not the truth of the matter either, not really. That’s certainly not the way it worked for me. I grew to love my child well before he made his first appearance in this world, and it didn’t happen the first time I saw his tiny form on an ultrasound screen either. All I really felt then was fear and a little awe. As I tracked his growth and what was happening to him, picked his name out, bought him little clothes, things began to change. With every kick I felt and every book I read to my growing belly, the stronger I felt. The love was there before I ever saw his tiny fingers and itsy bitsy toes. The bond built over time as my body sacrificed to nourish his. With every craving and maddeningly exhausting day, the love grew and continued to grow to astronomical proportions. His ruddy little cheeks and fawn crown of hair only added to it. He was perfect when he fell asleep on my chest the first time, but it wouldn’t have mattered if he had been born with any number of defects—I would have loved him all the same because that love was made before my eyes ever landed on his tiny, pink form.

No matter how you look at it, love takes time to grow. It’s like a garden that way. It needs care, time, and a little TLC. It needs to be nourished and given your attentions. And when you do all those things you might get lucky and get a good harvest…or you might do all the right things and still get half-formed ears of corn. Love is fickle that way. And that’s okay. It’s worth the work and the gamble. The good times are worth enduring the bug-ravaged squash vines that make you fall to your knees in the middle of the rows and cry out of frustration or toss your spade in the ditch out of anger. You might even scream to the skies that you’ll NEVER PLANT ANOTHER FUCKING GARDEN AGAIN, but you don’t mean it. It’s too blissful being surrounded by the scent of tomato plants popping a couple of still dirty cherry tomatoes in your mouth while you’re covered in sweat and smiling in the fading sunlight of the day.

So, I do believe you can get a tingle, something electric that makes you want to know a person on sight, but that’s not love, and that’s okay. Because love is worth the work. The bounty of the harvest you get when you get love right is worth the blood, sweat and tears. If it were any easier, it wouldn't feel half as good when you succeed.

That's my swap, folks. Here are the links to the other bloggers: 

http://www.BakingInATornado.com                          Baking In A Tornado

http://stacysewsandschools.blogspot.com/                        Stacy Sews and Schools

http://berghamchronicles.blogspot.com                      The Bergham’s Life Chronicles

http://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com                          Spatulas on Parade

http://dinoheromommy.com/                            Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

http://themomisodes.com                                          The Momisodes

http://climaxedtheblog.blogspot.com                                Climaxed

http://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/                   Confessions of a part-time working mom

http://www.southernbellecharm.com                      Southern Belle Charm

http://thelieberfamily.com                                        The Lieber Family

http://www.someoneelsesgenius.com                             Someone Else’s Genius

http://www.eviljoyspeaks.wordpress.com                      Evil Joy Speaks

http://www.gndisney.wordpress.com                             Disneyland in Kentucky

http://sparklyjenn.blogspot.com/                                  Sparkly Poetic Weirdo

http://www.JuiceboxConfession.com                           Juicebox Confession