It was something different. Something that may not have been as powerful if I had not experienced such a drastic opposite only a few days prior.

We all stood in the heat, sticky from the humid tropical air, anxious to enter the unknown area we were being led, hoping desperately for shade. I remember prying back the intimidatingly large steel gate, pulling hard as the jagged bottom caught on the gravel at our feet. The colorful graffiti painted on the steel caused a small fear to build in the pit of my stomach as well as some confusion.

Once the gate was pulled back far enough to create a narrow pathway, shouts, laughter, and foreign squeals of excitement surrounded us. Dust filled the air as bare feet ran through the rock-filled dirt towards us. They sprinted with such a purpose, as if the soles of their feet could feel no pain, and all they had on their minds was eliminating the distance between them and us.

Little brown bodies coated with dirt surrounded us, and as I was still processing it all, a child jumped up and clung to my hip. In that moment, the heat, along with every predetermined, complex idea of what I thought love should be, faded away, as a giant kiss landed on my cheek.

This was love. Free to express itself, pure, authentic, and unconditional.