Love (Emotion)
Please, God, Help Me Stop Missing Her
I was scrolling through psychotherapy memes on Instagram a few years ago when Hannah popped up in my friend requests. We each had new last names and new looks. I had decided that since I had to wear wigs anyway (as an ultra-Orthodox Jew), they may as well be blond instead of my natural dull […]
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The Case for Being Touched
“Can I come over?” It was a simple text. One I probably shouldn’t have been feeling so anxious about having sent as I drove to Matt’s house on the west side of Los Angeles after a late night at the office. But for a Muslim woman in her late 20s who had lived her entire […]
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A Texting Lifeline During a Difficult Time
I chose my college based on the vibes of the people in the school’s accepted students Facebook group. This one blonde boy commented on my introduction post saying he also liked a favorite artist of mine, and my friend told me that was proof enough — if there’s one, there’s bound to be more. My […]
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Tiny Love Stories: ‘Joy Waits for No One’
To Care and Carry I checked the time as we neared the airport, and my stomach sank. My wrist was bare, as it had been the day my son died suddenly more than 20 years before. Bad things happened when I forgot to wear my watch. My husband, who never knew my son, took my […]
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I Married the Wrong Person, and I’m So Glad I Did
I don’t know if I truly loved my husband when we got married or if I even knew what love was. But I know that we are learning to love each other with each passing day and that there is profound joy in that messy process. There are nights when he sits quietly reading, and […]
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Not Every Breakup Is About Being Broken
I was dying the morning I met Sarah. I ordered a latte from the campus coffee shop because she had done the same. To make up for it, I starved myself until late that night. Luckily, it had been made with skim milk, not whole, so I was allowed to have dinner. With a pandemic […]
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The Dentist Who Treated My Divorce
“Yes,” I said. I felt the tears welling up. “That’s it.” My childhood was plagued with jitters and loss related to problems of the mouth: tooth decay, tooth grinding, erratic spacing, several missing molars that an early dentist joked made me either spectacularly evolved or prehistoric. But worst of all were the extra canals in […]
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Tiny Love Stories: ‘So Fragile I Had to Look Away’
What I Sign Up For When I expressed sadness about American troops being sent to Poland in anticipation of Russia invading Ukraine, I was met with a remark I often hear as an Army wife: “That’s the life you signed up for.” I fell in love with Marco in high school — before he enlisted, […]
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The 36 Questions That Lead to Love
In Mandy Len Catron’s Modern Love essay, “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This,” she refers to a study by the psychologist Arthur Aron (and others) that explores whether intimacy between two strangers can be accelerated by having them ask each other a specific series of personal questions. The 36 questions in the study […]
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