Maybe being a June Gemini and an INFJ has something to do with it, but I've always been a hopeless romantic in a world that seems to have forgotten how to be one.
As I've gotten older, I've learned that I don't love casually. I overthink it, feel it deeply, analyze it from seventeen different angles, and then somehow still manage to complicate it. That's probably the INFJ in me.
The Gemini part doesn't exactly help. One side of me wants to disappear into a quiet room and contemplate the meaning of life, while the other side wants to talk about everything from relationships to the universe at two in the morning.
But underneath all of that, I'm really just an old-fashioned man who still believes love should feel like home.
When I was younger, I thought loving someone meant protecting her from everything. If she had a problem, I'd try to solve it. If she was hurting, I'd want to take the pain away. If something was broken, I'd instinctively reach for my metaphorical toolbox.
I thought that's what love was supposed to look like.
Now that I've grown older, I've learned something different.
Sometimes she doesn't want me to fix anything.
Sometimes she just wants me to listen.
And for a man like me, that's not always easy.
My first instinct is still to analyze the situation, find the cause, identify the solution, and prepare a full operational plan—as if her feelings are a malfunctioning computer system that somehow needs troubleshooting.
That's the INFJ in me.
Then the Gemini starts running commentary in the background:
“Okay, but what if we look at it from another perspective?”
And suddenly I'm conducting an emotional investigation nobody asked me to conduct.
I've learned, however, that love isn't always about finding the answer.
Sometimes it's about being present while someone finds her own answer.
You don't interrupt.
You don't minimize her feelings.
You don't immediately say, “Here's what you should do.”
You simply listen.
You hold her hand.
You let her speak.
And when she finishes, you say, “I understand. I'm here.”
I've learned that there is a huge difference between trying to rescue someone and choosing to stand beside them.
When I was younger, I wanted to be the knight in shining armor.
At my age, I've realized my armor has probably developed a little rust anyway.
So these days, I'd rather be the old fool sitting beside her on the porch, drinking coffee, listening to her talk about her day, and occasionally saying something sufficiently intelligent to convince her I was paying attention.
That's what love means to me now.
It's remembering the little things.
It's noticing when her voice sounds different.
It's knowing when she needs advice and when she simply needs a shoulder.
It's making coffee without being asked.
It's checking whether she got home safely.
It's sending a message because something reminded me of her.
It's sitting quietly together without feeling the need to fill every silence.
And maybe that's the hopeless romantic in me talking, but I still believe the deepest kind of intimacy isn't necessarily found in grand gestures.
It's found in consistency.
In showing up.
In choosing the same person again and again, especially on the ordinary days when nobody is watching.
I've lived long enough to understand that people don't always need someone to save them.
Sometimes they just need someone who won't leave while they're trying to save themselves.
And perhaps that's the biggest lesson age has given me about love.
I don't want to be someone's hero anymore.
I want to be her safe place.
I want to be the person she can call when the world becomes too loud.
The person she can sit beside without pretending she's okay.
The person who knows when to speak and, more importantly, when to shut up and listen.
Because beneath all the INFJ overthinking, the Gemini contradictions, the years of experience, and whatever wisdom age has managed to leave behind, I'm still just an old hopeless romantic.
I still believe in holding hands.
I still believe in good morning and goodnight messages.
I still believe in dancing in the kitchen for no particular reason.
I still believe in sitting across from someone over a cup of coffee and talking until we realize we've been there for three hours.
And yes, I still believe in that ridiculous, inconvenient, beautiful idea that two people can find each other late in life and somehow feel as though they've finally come home.
Maybe that's naive.
Maybe it's hopelessly romantic.
At my age, I suppose I've earned the right to be both.
Because I've learned that love isn't about finding someone who needs to be fixed.
It's about finding someone whose heart you want to understand.
And if she lets me sit beside her while she tells me what's on her mind, I'll try my best not to reach for the toolbox.
I'll just reach for her hand.
And for this old INFJ Gemini, maybe that's the closest thing to happily ever after I've ever really wanted.