Dear London,
Uneasiness washes over me the moment I realize that I dropped my heart in one of your streets, on one of your many bridges or in one of your beautiful parks. Until this day I didn’t get my heart back and even though it honestly scares me, I tell you with all I have, please keep it. It is quite nice to feel this feeling, this incredible version of love. A love that is so deep and strong that it is hard to explain and when you try to explain it, it’s not always understood. You take my breath away; you make me feel like I’m wrapped in the best and cosiest hug I’ll ever get. One of those hugs that makes you feel one hundred percent safe. You feel like coming home, the moment I take the first steps in one of your streets I get this giddy and fluttering feeling in my stomach. You (your people and everything you are) make me feel like I’m the most amazing person and that I can do anything I set my mind to. So I guess here I am, doing something I’ve fantasized about for years and (hopefully) it is just the beginning.
You keep me grounded. I realize every time that I’m just a small part of a big world and all I can leave behind one day is a legacy that I’m proud of in the best way possible. The feeling you give me is comparable to the feeling that music and concerts give me. It makes me a part of something bigger, it touches me to the core and honestly, I think I’ll never find the perfect words to explain this feeling. If you know me, then you know that this is one of the biggest compliments you can get. You carry some kind of magic, which might not be visible to everybody but it touches me, I feel it in every single fibre of my body and sometimes I ask myself if it is even real or if I’m the one who is dreaming.
It is a heartbeat that fastens, a sense of belonging, fitting in. Being alone in a crowded, busy city, but I don’t feel lonely, I feel content. Wandering the streets for hours, strolling through beautiful parks, walking in and out of bookshops meeting so many kind and interesting people. I’m always in awe when I realize what a fast pace time has, especially when I’m spending it with music or in a bookshop. The people are all so unique and, on some level, they are not afraid to show that they are incredible and talented humans each in their own way. And maybe it is just the magic you have, the magic you show to all the people if they allow themselves to open their eyes.
It is standing in a crowded, busy tube during rush hour, contemplating my entire existence. But while I wait for the station at which I have to get off or change trains I’m looking around, and somehow, I wouldn’t want it to be any other way. Walking the street on a cloudy but beautiful morning. People making haste to get their coffee before work, business man or women hurrying to their offices. Creatives out and about to be inspired on this new day or rather sleeping in, because they had a creativity boost the night before and worked until the early hours, until the sun already started to rise. People on their way to school or university chasing dreams just like (hopefully) all of us. Tourists who are overwhelmed but falling in love with the city while visiting for the very first time, while others come back to a destination, they have visited many times and just can’t get enough of.
Life is hard, frightening and difficult to comprehend sometimes, but all those things remind you that you are alive (cheesy but true). It reminds you, that you have the right to live your life to the fullest and while we might only live for a short period of time in comparison to earth itself, we can be powerful, we can make a change and we can leave behind a meaningful legacy. A legacy can be so many things, it can be big or small, it doesn’t matter. As long as it is meaningful to you! You London, you are teaching me so many things every single time and it made me hand you my heart in no time. In a blink of an eye, you were a part of my reality. Sometimes times may be easy, sometimes they will be hard, but I’ll be coming back for you every single time.
All my love,
Anna
Dear Anna,
London will blush, when it gets such a wonderful and enthousiastic “loveletter” from you.
I like the way in which you declare your love to this big City with so many interesting things it can offer, so many secrets to find out. I can get the same feeling as you have written.
Being together with you for a couple of days in this wonderful city, I felt completely relaxed, to have you as a guide.
The way on which you showed me interesting parts of Britain’s capital was astonishing!
It was as if you were a native there. Ofcourse I knew that it was thanks to the digital means that you could show me the way in London, but still I could notice how you had been absorbed by this city!
So I can fully understand that you’ve completely lost your heart there!
Maybe we both can look for it next year?