Morning Report: Be My Valentine

This collage caught my eye while sorting-out the roots-level of our home recently. Suddenly, our technology-roots-grown-together was in front of me. An Adobe design software box sitting with a book about encryption, with a how-to kiss booklet nearby, made me smile. The red and black colors spoke to me of a passion persisting through the most difficult of times: happily bumping into each other more than ten years ago as if in the dark; riding the highs and lows of dementia-care followed by cardiac-care; secretly marrying each other two years ago this morning among the trees of our back woods; and now holding each other close through the heartache and fresh grief of losing one set of parents.
The effects of long-term family-care on our love-life have been significant. I’m grateful to now see wedding dresses hanging in storage because they’ve been worn with joy in 2012 for a private winter wedding and fall family marriage celebration. It is good to talk about this in the past-tense. I’m grateful that my mother and father met and loved Karl, and that my father saw us happily married. I’m so encouraged that marriage roots grow deeper and sweeter over time. We’ll continue to explore the art of painting each other with kindness, roses, and chocolate.
Moving forward with a listening heart,
vision, inquiry, and action,
~ Mary
Practice Tip: What are the images of love in your life? Holding a beloved’s hand; a warm hug; a passionate, tender, loving kiss; the warmth of a soft blanket; being kind to yourself… Take time today to explore more deeply the presence of love in your life.