by Julie Gentz
https://timeinabottle.blog

” . . . and now, I’m glad I didn’t know the way it all would end, the way it all would go. Our lives are better left to chance. I could have missed the pain, but I’d have had to miss The Dance.” The Dance by Garth Brooks.

My favorite Valentine didn’t come from a store. It came straight from the heart. When we were dating, I told my late husband that he would never have to worry about disappointing me on Valentine’s Day, because I didn’t want just one day a year to be the day we showed our love for each other, I wanted that to be every day. One Valentine’s Day many years ago, he gave me the best Valentine’s gift I have ever had. He made a card. Every part of it, from the inspiration to the delivery, was filled with love. On the front was a carefully crafted pink heart with small, delicate slits cut into it, through which he had woven an arrow. Inside was this message; “Julie, you are my Fair Lady. Love, Sir Brian.” I have kept it tucked away safely for all these years, in the same box where I saved all of the letters he wrote to me. Finding it now after his death last April, was like having him hand deliver it with a kiss all over again. So, as I spend my first “calendar Valentine’s Day” without him I feel extremely blessed. I know that even though we can no longer physically be together, we had the chance to share “the dance” together every day for 27 wonderful years –not just on Valentine’s Day.

LOVE

Love. Do you feel it?

Sometimes it’s as easy and simple as a hug,

Other times as difficult and complicated as a long good-bye.

More times than not it’s hard to put your finger on —

Elusive, ethereal, unquantifiable, mysterious.

Who do you love?

Your best friend? Your spouse? Your Partner? Yourself?

The unborn baby you have yet to meet?

Perhaps it’s no one. Or maybe it’s everyone.

LOVE can be given and sadly, not returned.

Worse yet, it can be rejected, returned to the sender, damaged and degraded.

If you are lucky enough to find it, hold it close. Nurture it. Bask in it.

Cherish it, for it can be snatched away from you in an instant by Death.

It’s such a small word, yet it carries with it so much power.

LOVE

So all consuming. So divine.

So precious. Such a gift.

LOVE

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Originally posted at https://timeinabottle.blog/2022/02/15/i-love-you/