Love: The Rooting of Soul and Body – Ayten Bardak

Sometimes, love is a whisper; sometimes, it’s a resounding scream. It lives in the tiny fingers of a child reaching out to their mother, in an old man’s faded photograph held for years, in the trembling ink left on pages by a pen. Defining love is like trying to grasp the wind the tighter you hold, the more it slips away, but when you release it, you feel its cool touch on your skin.

Love nourishes not only the heart, but also the soul and body. A word spoken with love flows like healing through the veins, reaching the deepest cells of the body. When the soul is shaped by love, it expands, even heavy wounds lighten, and our faded parts bloom again. Because we don’t live just by bread, but by the warmth of a glance, the healing of a touch, and the safety of a voice. Without love, the soul withers, the body crumbles, and the world loses all its colors. But when loved? Then a person grows towards the light like a tree rooted in the sky.

Love is a thief of time; it steals the past from your hands and places the future in your arms. When you love someone, the lines of time blur. In that moment, a forever is created. Love sometimes hides in a smile, sometimes in a farewell. It makes silence louder than words, and even distance feels warm because of it.

To reach out and touch without expecting anything—that is love. To accept someone even with their deepest wounds, to memorize their flaws, yet still make room in your heart—that is love. Sometimes it’s about losing, sometimes it’s about finding, but it is never about disappearing. Because love always leaves a mark in the heart that holds it. And some marks, over time, are never erased; they just become more meaningful.

Love is like a delicately woven lace delicate yet strong, invisible yet felt. Perhaps it is the greatest miracle of the world: A person becomes whole by loving more.

AYTEN BARDAK