Today is just another Valentine’s kind of day in our household, no different than any other – my husband grabs me for a big good morning bear hug, raves about my cooking and still says I’m good looking.  It’s a wonder what growing old with the right person can do for the eyesight, as we still see each other for the girl and boy we once were.  I’m glad we’re not.

 

There’s something to be said for longevity in relationships.  As it ages, our married life grows into a loving rhythm of accepting one another for who we are rather then who we hope the other may one day become. It allows for the sharing and blending of two lives that make each become more than either could be on their own.  And the longer our lives live together, the easier it is to discern and even anticipate the times when one of us needs to borrow from the other’s storehouse of strength to overcome some inherent weakness.  My husband and I are the proverbial perfect opposites that attracted.  He is good with all sorts of things mechanical, while it takes me a long time to cope with any technological advance – I’m so klutzy, I use to struggle to get ice out of a refrigerator door ice dispenser.   But he patiently stands in the gap beside me for as long as I need to lean on him.  There are similar ways I attend to his gaps, though none come to mind that are in need of sharing. 

 

We were once high school sweethearts who broke apart mid-way through college.  I got married.  And so did he.  Neither marriage lasted.  And eleven years later, my parents and he ended up living in the same place and time.  It was my sister who played cupid –she brought us back together by betraying a confidence–by telling tales of how I’d never gotten over him.  It took a while to forgive her.  But, after it was all said and done, I thanked her then and still do.  I do.  I do.

 

How glad I am that he is mine and I am his.  This morning I told him I was glad he came back to get me for his life.  And, with words that were not my own, but that were sufficient to the task, I told him of my love with this most perfect old fashioned Valentines Day card.  There was no need to do anything but sign my name.  Happy Valentines Honey.  And thanks Shakespeare –after all these years, you still have what it takes. 

 

“I do love nothing in the world as I do you.”   — Shakespeare