I would count everything that makes you, you Your every freckle to your laugh The way your eyes light up when you see me The words you use to describe how you feel about me The way your eyes start to water when I say I have to leave Your choice of words you use What makes you, you Are all the things I love

I love you in Starbucks rewards points. Evidence of hundreds of sweet vanilla cold brews.

I love you in hours of achy postpartum joints. That I forget every time our son coos.

I love you in mortgage payments. On a little brick house

I love you in totes in my parents’ basement Your hunting gear taking priority over a good blouse

I love you in deer roast. I cook them because you’re so proud.

I love you in the most. In words I don’t say out loud.

Count every way I've loved you You'll need more than your fingers and toes Count every way you've loved me The only number that grows is the inches of your nose

You've given me 10 reasons Not for what you think 10 reasons to leave you Because you're the reason tears leave my eyes when I blink

10 missing assignments because you always made me skip. 9 times I've rewrote this, to hopefully have it roll off my lips. 8 times you've screamed, every decibel I felt my heart break Please tell me, was it all fake?

7 times you've hurt me 6 times I let it slide 5 fingers to hold But everytime I tried, all I got was a scold

4 new mascaras, I had to buy For all those times you've made me cry 3 words, it felt like you never could say 'I love you' was all it would take me to stay

2 people it takes, to make a relationship work But where were you when I was hard at work 1 time I felt loved by you When you told me our love was 'true'

I see now, what I failed to before All I was to you, was a chore Now I know, I deserve so much more Than to just be another shell on the shore

Count every way I've loved you It's all I can do I keep playing back our fights in my head All of those tears that I've shed

Was it a waste? All those fears I faced? I learned so much Just from your touch

But now it's time to go I need room to grow I know it's time, for me to dry my eye For me to finally say 'goodbye'

If I count the ways I love you I would run out of numbers The english language doesn’t account for all the ways I love you

If I count the ways I love you It would take billions of fingers billions of hands and hearts I coulf never count that high

If i count the ways I love you i fear I would never sleep because i would continue to speak and would never stop

If i count the ways I love you my heart would nearly burst for i can not handle all my love for you with my mere body

If I Count The Ways I Love You, I am reminded or the best day of my life, when you were born and how you literally saved me, and have everyday since then. My world was in black and white and turned into the most beautiful vivid colors ever. I was finally alive.

If I Count The Ways I Love You, I would say how absolutely beautiful and amazing you are inside and out. You probably would say I have to say this I’m your mom. Yes, true, but I’ve heard more times than I can count and received countless letters about how special, dependable, loving, caring, respectful, you are and how much of a leader, selfless, humble person are. I could go on and on forever.

_If I Count The Ways I Love You,, I would tell you how much of a caretaker you are and how much it means to me to know I can count on you for anything anytime. It’s priceless. _

If I Count The Ways I Love You, I Would definitely say you’re patience is commendable to say the least.

_If I Count The Ways I Love You, I would have to say because of how kind and caring you are to everyone including family, friends and anyone neighbors, strangers. I’m reminded of a night late when a stranger was in the street and most would have drove by, but you stopped to seee if they needed help. _

If I Count The Ways I Love You, I would include how respectful you are and always say please and thank you and how many times over the years I’ve heard about this, and how rare it is nowadays! It’s common courtesy.

_If I Count The Ways I Love You, I would say how great a friend you are. You will go anywhere, anytime , often the middle of the night, to help a friend out and actually do so regularly. _

_If I Count The Ways I Love You, you love you _ I’d have to say by helping everyone out so much that you’re going to school to become an. EMT-FIREFIGHTER! My Hero! My Son, My Friend!

_If I Count The Ways I Love You, I would say how many acts of service you do for me to show your love, in addition to your amazing hugs 🤗, words of affirmation and gifts and cards. You’re also very good with words and write the sweetest notes in my cards that I’ll keep and cherish forever. _

_If I count the ways I love you , it would take forever and ever beyond infinity bc you’re the BEST part of me, even when I m gone you’ll forever shine on like a when you were so young and if we were apart, I told you to look up to the sky and look at the stars and I’d be looking at the same ones. _

Love always and forever to infinity, Mom ☺️

If I could count the ways I love you I'd be counting for eternity.

I'd discover numbers that don't yet exist.

Every star would perish, and billions would be born, before I'd finished.

I believe, if I were to measure my love for you, it would outweigh anything else in the universe.

The strongest forces of nature would gaze upon my love with jealousy.

I loved you in secret, grieving the romance "that could have been."

Now that I am loved by you in return, I have nothing else to give but my love.

It's as thundering as the ocean, as immeasurable as the stars, and as determined as a flower in snow.

Numbers and words are not enough to capture the amount of my love for you.

I cannot promise much, but I can promise this:

I will love you, and you alone, until this universe of ours blinks out of existence.

There would be nothing Dead words would serve as flies Withholding no purpose or meaning Not because I am not skilled with this tongue But because I hold no intention of saying That I care for you

Ten years wasted with one signature Nine different ways to say stay Eight months of fighting Seven times I should have left Six days of silence Five types hatred Four souls left amiss Three words that don’t matter Two people walking different paths One love left behind

I’d tattoo your hand across my heart In hopes that you’d find me in the next life Your brown eyes give me butterflies While your voice narrates my day If I count the ways I love you I’d tell you secrets you never knew Like how you made me happy cry When I was feeling down about myself There’s plenty of reasons why You know all the right words to say Even if you sleep a lot and work overtime You match my pace to yours without even missing a beat You even read my favorite series just to understand That I’m more me when I’m with you So does it count if I count the ways I love you

If I count the ways I love you I’d ask, “Why does it always have to be me?” Like I did when I was a young girl Numerous blood draws and surgeries My friends don’t know my true pain Not even the ones that know my medical history I do my best to stay positive despite the outcome There are treatments but no cure For what I have This disease But someone’s got it worse than me pain and headaches- just breathe Thanks for telling me that its okay to cry When my body doesn’t know that it needs to but my mind relaxes in response That “it’s okay to cry” I cry and cry and cry Sometimes I need to be told that I cannot handle it alone But if I count the ways I love you I’d count my family and friends first For understanding what it’s like for me to live To continue to accept my self She’s constantly on the brink of anxiety, joy, and sadness But now I’d include me too Not loving myself last or less But loving myself equally More tomorrow than today These are the words I would say If I count the ways I love you

Note: this story is true. I actually do have Coats disease (rare eye disease) and other stuff including generalized anxiety. It’s not something I talk about normally, but I felt this way today so I decided to write a poem to express my emotions. I hope if you’re reading this you know that its okay to cry, to accept whatever it is you’re going through and to keep moving forward. ❤️