Sophia, my most beloved -

When you look into a mirror, do you see what I behold each day? Do you see the beauty that radiates from your soul or the loving heart beating inside you my love? Probably not – your modesty prevents you from seeing what the rest of us see and adore in you.

For so long I have felt the love of your heart, the great and pure love that it holds for all mankind, that I cannot see your face without viewing your soul. And even when storms pass through your eyes, the sunrise that follows is even more bright than the day before.

As gently as streams gurgle down the mountainside do you adjudge those about you, not washing them away, but scouring away their imperfections to make them as shiny and new. Your heart is so full of forgiveness for acts large and small; all who know you are better for the association. You are the Halcyion Days of life's winter.

Your voice is the voice of doves in the evening, your eyes the gold of the setting sun and though, like everyone who has ever lived, your beauty has been hidden at times, it has never been sullied or diminished. Your beauty and your love have been as constant as the Moon rising in winter over the frozen land. "If I know love in this life, it is because of you." Once you spoke those words to me, but it is me whose heart bears that thought each day my most precious and beloved Sophia.

The love you give to me with every breath is a gift that originated in the hand of God, flowing through you and into my heart.

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