Once upon a time I thought romance was grand gestures, expensive gifts, petals on the bed and all that showy stuff. Over time, I’ve learned that love is bringing a cushion to your wife to help alleviate her swollen knee. It’s bringing her a cup of tea in bed, it’s making her a meal, just the way she likes it. It’s being a rock for her when times are hard, it’s being the shoulder she wants to cry on. Romantic love is an invisible bond that grows between two people. It doesn’t need to show itself in grand gestures, instead it speaks across the distance between them, creating a telepathic understanding that needs no words. True love cannot be spoken.

My love ever showing,
Thy heart worth the knowing,
It is like the sun glowing,
And hid in thy breast.
Thy lover behold me;
To my bosom I’ll fold thee,
For thou, love, thou’st just told me,
So here thou may’st rest.

John Clare