Gold on the Pavement

I never planned for this. I hoped, but never planned. So it shouldn't be a surprise that I was caught unawares.

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Just like you, my love, I didn't think I'd find strangers who felt like family in this disparate world. I'd never been taught the rules to life, but for some reason I was dead sure that would be a crime. A love like that? Just floating around on the breeze? Waiting to be caught? Doesn't it seem unlikely? Like gold coins strewn on public park pavement? Surely somebody should have snatched you up by now. If not someone deserving, at least a squirrel or a rat. Surely the gold on the pavement wasn't just waiting for me. Couldn't be.

Yet that is what it feels like. Like fate conspired for us to meet- against the odds and in the exact moment I decided gold wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. You're not what I need, I told myself, full of confidence and not a doubt in my mind. Love is just shiny and useless.

But I guess once in a while, it's nice to have uselessly shiny things. And maybe that little tingle of joy you feel in your gut when you witness magic in the sparkle of a precious metal is of some use. Maybe not to you or to me, but I'm sure of it. To the universe, maybe? It must be.

Maybe that's how stars are born. In the sparkle of your eyes or the crinkle of your laugh. How could those have no use if they make me smile so recklessly? Is that joy of no value because it makes no money?

Well let me tell you this. Your laughter is too pure for currency, your heart pure gold. And we could spend eternity trying to measure this, but it would leave us both fools counting stars.

I can tell you this, that the universe did conspire.

I can tell you this, that you were the end of the rainbow I searched so long to find.

And only until I stopped believing in that pot of gold, did I stumble upon the gold on the pavement. Only till I paid my dues to fate, did it relent and show me what was hidden in plain sight all along.

You, my darling, were what I was looking for.

So tell me.

Did you plan this all along?