That thing where you wake up from a nap craving the weirdest foods. That thing where you cry until you gag. That thing where  they kiss you and your knees buckle and your bones are momentarily molten.

That thing where you can't stay awake during your lunch break. Where your arm falls asleep and turns to salt and pepper pinpricks. That thing where you just really are never gonna feel like flossing. That thing where the line at the grocery store becomes purgatory and you briefly but sincerely consider screaming at strangers for buying so many damn cans of soup.

That thing where you don't realize you're suffocating until they come home from work and you can suddenly breathe. Where they see you sick for the first time and you are genuinely, sincerely disgusting, and they take care of you anyway.

Where you notice lines at the corners of their eyes that weren't there before and realize how beautiful time can be. Where you attend a funeral together and experience the most poignant flavor of agony - the vicarious pain you cannot help but feel and will never be able to mend. The terrified joy of deciding to have a child. The indescribable manic frustration of balancing the household budget elbow-to-elbow at a kitchen table you carried up a few flights of stairs.

The phone call where your heart stops. The drive-and-sob on your way to pick them up. The silent prayer of thanks that the world keeps turning, that they are still here, that you are still whole.

Birthdays. Stitches. Meals. Arguments. Parties. Bills. Illness. Death. Life.

Wrapping them up from behind while they do the dishes. Being purposefully, ridiculously irritating just so they'll stop what they're doing, just so you can see the sparkle in their eyes.

Lying in bed and finally pondering your feelings on the afterlife, because you'd kind of like them in it.

Aching with the realization that all things change. Rejoicing with the knowledge you'll be ok anyway.

I promise, I promise you, it's the same for all of us - ace and gay and straight and bi and pan and poly and monogamous and everything in between. I promise you, our trials become our strengths. I promise you, if you can stop looking for the ways you think we are different, you'll wake every morning for the rest of your life in awed celebration at the realization of how very un-alone you have always been.

That thing where we all crave connection -

It's a human thing.