“Airport terminals are the most beautiful places. I watch women fly into their husbands arms and count balloons that spell out “Welcome home.” I see lips mouth I love you and I’ve missed you and I hear those aching cries of first glances. I see the sheared heads of sons who’ve been overseas and I see the businessmen with their awkward limbs put an arm over a daughter who doesn’t understand that he loves her more than the world. I watch the lovers and the families and I watch lives restitch together, and I, I count my steps. Slower as I see the security guards in their blue and gold. Slower as I see the benches and the sign that points to the baggage claim. Slower as I see the top of heads who yell out my name from yards away. And then I stop…For a single moment, I can almost imagine myself as a daughter who has spent her life overseas and is only now coming home to the people who love her. I can almost imagine that now, this time around, this love will remain throughout the days instead of just for the first few glances. I count the sadness in the children’s eyes that keeps adding up and multiplying every year I see them, and I make a quiet promise that one day when I leave, I’ll be holding their hands to cross the gates. Airports are beautiful for families who understand how to love each other, for lovers who’ve been apart long enough to miss each other wholly and ceaselessly. Airports are beautiful to write stories about, but for now, I’ll just do with counting balloons and catching whispers of sentiments that shape out something whole. I just hope that one day I’ll walk through the terminal gates to fly into someone’s arms and tell them, “I love you. I missed you, and I’ll never leave again.”
– Unknown (via sukoonandtea) (Source: endorfins)
