Romance Is ...
Buying yourself flowers
Taking yourself on a solo coffee date
Having an entire cafe to yourself on a Sunday afternoon for your solo coffee date
Feeling sweat roll down your back in a loose sundress
A day without wearing a bra or underwear
Not wearing make-up and showing the world what your face looks like naturally
Letting your arms be free in a sundress without covering them; forgetting inhibitions and self-consciousness
Not cinching in, snatching or compressing your waist because you think someone might find that more attractive than the freedom of your belly and it’s womanly fold over your waistline
The first bite of the almond croissant that you’ve been craving all week long
The first cold, inviting sip of an iced Mocha on a hot day while sweat rolls down your back in a loose sundress
Underneath the Sheets playing in a cafe on a Sunday afternoon - while the cute baker hums and your mind drifts …
When all you see in front of you are big loaves of bread and you remember that you’re Italian and in Mexico, where your only option is actually not tortillas, despite popular belief
The memory that your Italian body was built on bread
Acceptance, that with age, your body being slightly doughy (like bread) is, in fact an honor - a right of passage - a story unto itself
Seeing stretch marks and skin in your mirrored bathroom reflection and feeling at home
Watching two friends hug, tightly, where the one buried in the others chest takes a big inhale and exhales a smile from ear to ear
The closeness we feel to ourselves, our friends, nature, pastries and bread - our closeness to, well, living with an open mind and heart
Noticing the layered almonds and white sugar peacefully sleeping on top of your orange almond croissant
Chewing each bite of a croissant 20 times so you savor its flavor; allowing the texture of every single clustered and powdered sugared coated slivered almond to rest in your mouth
Taking one giant, satisfying bite of said croissant - with your giant mouth wide open and ready to possess every single part of it - balance
A stare, across the room, from a complete stranger
The all knowing that your life is romantic exactly as it is in this very moment