WITH LOVE FROM ITALY

I wished and I waited years for the timing to be right, to follow the man I  had loved at first sight.

Then, around the world I  went leaving everything behind and found life not as I’d imagined or fantasized,

but a reality much more difficult to realize.

It was one in which the knowledge of culture and language was  lacking, in which difficulties were continually mounting.

I  fought, failed, and found myself  torn between love and a life that was ridiculously hard.

I  learned and grew, got married, then separated, then reunited anew.

I  passed one year, two years, three, then more, and despite the challenges, I never gave up on the love I came for.

I  now have what I  always believed to be true, which isn’t love with the man I  once knew,

but love for the richness of experience that has graced me  with its presence

and for the resistance to fight for my  dreams till the end of existence.