1/17/2026

T, Mi Amor,

It’s 6:41 PM. It’s been a couple of hours since I saw you from what was probably our shortest encounter so far. Lasted probably 10 minutes? Maybe not even that. And it’s been about 40 minutes since I heard from you.

You know how I say that I love to drive because it lets me think? Well, one of the things that you said to me today was playing on my mind the entire time when i was driving back. When i picked you up today and we were just circling the building before dropping you back, you said to me – why can’t anything be easy?

When I heard that, I knew the angst behind that sentence. It wasn’t about asking for an easier life. It was about – why can we not be given an unrestricted chance to enjoy something so beautiful? Why does this feel like it has to be earned? Haven’t we gone through enough that we can just be given a shot to savour the happiness that we feel now and not have it rationed?

Girl, I feel you. And I felt that.

There was this moment when I was stuck at the toll plaza, and there was this car that pulled up in the lane next to where I was standing. It was some fancy expensive car. It was being driven be a chauffeur. In the back seat was a couple. I could only see the back of the guy’s head because he was turned away from me. I could see a portion of the woman’s head sort of hung down in defeat. The guy had his right hand up gesturing in an angry way. She was just exhausted and defeated. She was so unhappy.

There was this other moment when I was stuck in the signal in the last mile. There was all this hustle and bustle and everyone was basically indulging endlessly in consumerism. And I saw this other couple. The girl was in this golden dress carrying a bag from Sephora. The guy was walking next to her. They weren’t holding hands or anything. They were just walking next to each other. I cannot say whether they were happy or not.

You remember on Christmas when we walked on the street? We never let each other’s hands go. Like the whole time. Even when we were fighting, we never let go of each other’s hands. You remember that?

I thought about this today because, look at those two couples. I don’t think that either had to earn the privilege of sharing their life with their paramour. I’m not going to stretch it to say they were never in love, but I think that somewhere along the way, both of them lost the value it carried. They took it for granted. Presence became permanence. And permanence brought forth complacency.

So when I think about them, and I think about us, the one thing that stands out to me is – man will we never take this for granted. You realise how so much of our gratitude practice has to do with each other? Like even in the past week whatever we have shared has largely been around being thankful for the other person. And I think that’s the one thing that differentiates the ones that make it versus the ones that don’t. The acknowledgement of value and the gratitude for presence.

Our journey isn’t going to be an easy one, for sure. But oh baby, what we are building along the way? Nothing can shake that.

You are the love of my life, the light of my life.

Love Forever And Always,

XOXO,

A