My first kiss was more dangerous than a bomb dropped on the peaceful city of my heart. I was only 5 years old. As I ducked out of my Aikido class early, the sensei’s daughter pulled me under a blossoming cherry tree, where she asked me to “giggle our lips together.” Out of nowhere, a heretofore unknown type of BIG BANG hit me in the heart, with an explosion of sugary chaos across my mind. I was sure that God had turned up as a butterfly-eyelash flower girl. I was sure we were going to get married and even offered her a ring made of flower stems. Of course, within weeks of our floral smooching, she moved far far away and I felt as lost as a naked child on Mars.

You’re the one that I dream,
I dream about all day. . .

I could dig to China to find you, girl
When I put my ears to the ground
I still hear the tears of your call
Did you say that I lost you now?
Or was it that our love was true?
Roaming this lonely earthen town. . .
When I met you, the meaning of life I found!

You’re the one that I dream about,
I dream about all day:
Wishin’ on the stars in your eyes
I need your love, I need your love today

I don’t understand what makes love last now
or how to weather the ups and downs, the ups and downs
feelings that grow and die like snowflakes so proud
of their falling in love, falling to the ground.
It’s a matter of heart, they tell me.
But you can’t rope the ocean or tame a cloud

You’re the one that I dream, I dream about all day:
Wishin’ on the stars in your eyes
I need your love, I need your love today
You’re the one that I dream, I dream about all day:
Wishin’ on the stars in your eyes
I need your love, I need your love today

I never told you this. . .but when I left you, I pressed your flower ring into my journal and started drawing you with my paintbrush. I called you my heART! When I was on the plane, I drew your lips in the clouds. When I was sitting in a tree, I carved your toes in the trunk. When I was at dinner, I made your face out of broccoli. You became like a snow angel I had flown away from. . .like an hourglass with sand counted from a beach I wished we walked together. It was the longing that made me dream, it was the longing that made me sing. . .

Aaron Ableman is an award-winning UN artist, an author, and an ambassador for Alive and Awake, a global reforestation initiative that uses music and media to engage youth to counter climate change. AaronAbleman.com