I NEVER STOPPED LOVING YOU…I JUST STOP SHOWING IT

….Once he drew
to the kiss, he pulled my whole soul,
through his lips,
as sunlight drinketh dew,
His lips part from mine,
leaving my naked soul,
He could devour me,
I push back against his lips,
In this singular bond,
He released my soul,
Embodied the moment,
escaping words,
His kiss eloquent,
His kiss, His kiss

By Lois Boone

My boyfriend is an English/Religious Studies major at school with me. He is super sensitive and has a sweet tooth for beautiful poetry. For his birthday last year I bought a black paper notebook and a huge pack of those neon gel pens. Then I went to a local used bookstore and got old poetry textbooks for cheap. Each night I sat down and went through some of each book and chose poems that I felt expressed our love…and wrote them in the book, each in a different color ink, until I filled all 180 pages with beautiful poetry. I even made a friendship bracelet for a bookmark…to remind us that true love has its roots in friendship. Then I decorated the front of the journal in my own artwork, and on the inside cover I glued a picture of us together and wrote the date (his Birthday) along with a poem I had attempted to write myself. He was so moved that he actually cried! He practically sleeps with the thing!

Keep a journal for your love, on the cover and inside bindings cover in magazine clippings of sayings that refer to your love or relationship (such as: love, best, beautiful, forever, etc.). In the journal write at least a sentence a day about your love, even if you just say I love you, say something that they did that you’re thankful for, something you love about them, or something memorable about them… on the day the journal is filled give it to your love as a surprise gift, they’ll love you for it.

I don’t get to see my boyfriend very often and when he does come to the city to see me, we often do not get out much. Every time I see him I write him a little note after he leaves. For example: “I had so much fun at the movies tonight. It was a great pick. Thanks”, ” I know we didn’t do much but sit on the couch but still I treasure every minute because I was with you”, etc. I write them longer than that, those are just examples. I always make sure I date them as well. I never give them to him, instead I keep them. I keep every little thing that has to do with us, movie stubs, miniature golf score card, receipts to dinner, stubs to a Harley show we went to, etc. Also, all the poems I write him, I usually keep for myself. I put it all together with pictures and all my accessories and I’m making a memories scrapbook. I made the book myself out of red silk and white lace and each page inside is made with love, decorative paper colored pens, etc. I plan to give it to him one day soon.

When my boyfriend and I first started dating I would write down everything we did after our dates. On our 1-year anniversary I presented him with a scrapbook that listed all of the dates we went on and exactly what we did every time we saw each other during the year. It included pictures, movie stubs, and sweet messages. It takes a long time to complete and a lot of dedication but he loved it and now 3 years later we are getting married!

I’ve always seemed to have a problem with trusting people and telling them how I feel. My boyfriend of 4 years was starting to go crazy. I knew what was going on, and I was trying so hard to fix it. I like to write a lot, so I thought, “If I can’t say these things, writing them should be a lot easier.” So, I took a journal and wrote about 20 pages of things that I wanted him to know, and what was hard for me to verbally say. I left some room in the journal for him to write back…and he did. He loved the idea and we worked on it for a long time. We filled it up in about 6 months. This is a really good idea for people that have a hard time expressing themselves.

Show your love how much you appreciate them! My 1-year anniversary is coming up next month, and I have planned to make a special book for my husband. I got one of those divided legal folders (6 sections), and am putting different things in each section. For example, (1) introduction to how the year has passed, (2) Love songs (I find the lyrics on the Internet and print them out), (3) Comic book (I draw comics for him, and he LOVES them. I usually draw them about silly things that have happened to us, or just make a comical situation out of something that happened to us), (4) Another comic book (I told you he likes them), (5) Poems I wrote for him (or you can find poems off the internet and print them out) and (6) Conclusion to one year passed, turning of the page, etc., and what you hope for your future. Use different colored paper, or printed-paper, put stickers all over it, dress it up with glitter and paint and all that good stuff. I have done gifts like this before, and he claims they are so thoughtful and sweet. It takes a bit of work, but their smile is worth it. I usually buy a few small gifts along to go with it. If your anniversary is on a day you work, then leave it on the bed for them, place the gift bag in the center with the book laying in front of it, and spread confetti around and have a bouquet or roses. They will come home to find such a sweet surprise; it will be sure to capture their heart! You can use this with any other combination or love ideas as well.

It was our first anniversary. We had dated a whole year and he was my first boyfriend, so I wanted to make it special. I decided to do something unique, so I made a scrapbook of all our dates together. I chose one date that stuck out to me from each month together. For instance, our first date was at Dairy Queen. We ate ice cream across from each other in a booth. The reason I chose this one was because he always teases me about eating my ice cream cone with a spoon that night because I didn’t want to look like a dork licking ice cream. I presented the memory book of us to him on our first anniversary and he loved it.

My boyfriend and I will be celebrating our one year anniversary soon. It’s been a difficult year for him, going through a divorce and raising two children. To celebrate our anniversary I took a number of and also created a few of my own. Our day is going to start with having some photos taken of us. I’m usually the one taking the pictures so there are few pictures of us together. We have don’t have any photos of the children and us together either. I also thought this might help him realize that I care for him and his children and consider them my family. Then there will be a treasure hunt, which will involve various places we have been over the year. A lot of our times together were spent with the kids so I’ve made the clues fun for them so they can help in the hunt. Of course there will be treats for the kids along the way. In the evening the kids will be with a babysitter so I’ve made arrangements to have dinner at the restaurant we went to for our very first date and at the same table. On the table will be a bouquet of flowers. One flower for every month, with the meaning of the flower and what that month meant to me in regards to our relationship. I have created a scrapbook of various items (poems, emails, pictures, ticket stubs, sayings etc.) as a gift. Finally I am giving him a key to my mothers place, my home. I am currently living with him but want him to know that he is always welcome in our family and our home. It also represents the key to my heart. I hope he likes it. I’ve never done anything like this before.

My fiancé left in January for a year in Korea. We are getting married when he comes home. I’ve been keeping a journal that I will give to him when he comes home. I include things about my days, work, the kids, as well as thoughts… I’ve even written on the days we have our tiffs, because that’s all part of it. I’ve included poems and pictures of us or places I’ve been. It helps when the distance really gets to me. It’s a small way to keep him close even though he’s half a world away.

I like to write poetry and he loves to get it. This year we celebrated christmas on our anniversary (cause i was going out of town) I wrote a whole little book of poems and after each one made a journal entry of what inspired me to write it. He keeps it by his bed and reads at least one almost every night.

If you like drawing and making comics then you can try to make your own comic book. Get your ideas for the story line from events that you have both experienced in your relationship, or from wishes and dreams you have both talked about.

During a year my fiancée and I leave lots of little love notes to each other, collect tokens of our dates, take pictures, save trip mementoes and menus, and so on. So, every year I take a box about the size of a boot box, and decorate it. (We like to travel so I decorate the boxes with little maps, etc.) I also take an X-acto knife to open a slot in the box large enough to slide little envelopes and things through. We keep the box in the bookcase all year and fill it with all of our goodies and notes. By Christmas it’s completely stuffed and heavy. Also by that time we can’t even remember everything in there. On Christmas Eve we open the box and spend hours looking through everything we put in there all year long. No matter how many surprises and gifts there are under the tree, this box will be the most special one to be opened as well as a wonderfully romantic tradition for every Christmas together.

This would be a great gift idea for those 20-something year olds that grew up with the books Choose Your Own Adventure and want to make a creative love journal. Basically, the books gave you choices and depending on your choices you would flip to different pages. They were especially fun to read because you could reread the books and change your fate every time depending on what you chose to do. I made my own for my boyfriend’s birthday based on our “misadventures” (i.e. our first date: hiking up to a waterfall then playing on the slippery rocks barefoot, only to lose my footing and have him grab me by my bra strap to stop me from slipping off the rock). The best part about creating your own book is that you end up asking yourself “what if questions” (to come up with alternate endings) and realize how lucky you were to actually have been there at the right time to meet that special someone. To get started you might want to go to the public library and check out a “choose your own adventure” book from the children’s section (you won’t find it in bookstores anymore unless it’s a used one, they stopped making them). Then start writing down your favorite memories and let your creativity run wild for alternate endings. For a twist you can make only one good ending (that you and your loved one end up together) and the rest of them that you don’t and see if they pick the right ending or it takes them a couple of tries. Don’t get me wrong, it can get time consuming depending on how detailed you want to get but it’s worth seeing their smile in the end, and knowing that they’ll never get another gift quite like it.