Be My Valentine!

Morning Has Broken...

February 14, 2015
Saturday

Dear God,

It's Valentine's Day!!

Morning has broken, I hear the birds chirping, the sun is up, and all is right in my world! It's beautiful mornings like this that I would like to take a walk along the banks of a lake or the ocean. There's something about the water that draws me in.

I grew up in a small town situated on a big lake ~ Lake Minnewaska. I didn't pay much attention to it until I got old enough to take swimming lessons (which I bombed). I much preferred to set up my post on the shore and spend the day walking along the water's edge, reading, or just gazing into the waves splashing on the shore. Sunsets and sunrises were especially beautiful and I would pen poems about life. Each time I go back to visit and top the hill and see the lake below me, my heart skips a beat ... it is that beautiful.

One of my favorite books is Gift From the Sea written by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It's a short read, one that I tackle a couple times a year. My first copy was given to me by a man that I met on the beach and developed a deep friendship with. He was a professor with a brilliant mind, I was a young girl who had just graduated from high school. I brought out a playful side in him and he opened my mind to a world of introspection and faith. (He later became an ordained minister) Looking back, I think he knew me better than I knew myself ~ he saw in me what I see today, many years later.

"Women need solitude in order to find again the true essence of themselves." ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Today is Valentine's Day ~ a day to celebrate love and, YOU, my God, are love. You have been my beginning, my life, my protector and provider. Who was it that said, "How do I love thee, let me count the ways.." Ah yes, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. How could I forget...

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seems to lose

With my lost saints ~ I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life!~and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

Sonnet 43

Without love, I wither and become less than I could be. Without touch, my skin becomes like leather parched in the noon-day sun. My eyes begin to dull and my smile fades. I don't think I am alone in my thoughts. If I was, there would be no Valentine's Day ... no celebration of showing those we love that they are important. There would be no poets like Elizabeth Barrett Browning who put their hearts down on paper for all of us to read. No Romeo's and Juliet's, for sure...

My God in heaven, I pray for all my Readers to feel loved and cherished. I know there are those who are lonely, who suffer in Love's arena, and those who are going through the throws of divorce or the death of a loved one, especially a partner in life. I thank you for your love, your mercy, your grace. I thank you for the unconditional love showered upon your people. I especially want to thank you for the people you have brought into my life that have loved me and have accepted my love. What treasures relationships are! Let us not take them for granted. Amen, it is so!

I was in Walmart and there was a man in the flower section. He told me he put fresh flowers on his wife's grave every week. With tears in his eyes, he said, "I miss her so." The hug I gave him seemed so insignificant...

Miss Dottie

NOTE TO READERS (LATER):  My neighbor came over and suggested we go to Buzzard Billy's in Waco today for lunch. I still sound really congested and cough like crazy but I'm not contagious so I grabbed my purse and headed for the door. I got such a kick out of people watching today and the place was packed. 

One lady walked by our table. My guess is that she was in her late 50's, early 60's. She had on a skin tight hot pink sheath dress and had enough silicone in her boobs to float a battleship. Her feet were adorned with silver h-i-g-h heels and her blond hair coiffed in a style of out of a 1950's hairdresser's magazine. The waiter showed her to a table and she took out her phone (isn't that what we do when we are waiting?). Before long a rather tall well-dressed gentleman walked over to her table and sat down. I couldn't help but giggle watching them go through the flirting rituals ... a touch, a wink, a silver heel rubbing on his leg, her long acrylic nails scratching his back... The winks really got me and I almost had to leave to compose myself. Please, don't get me wrong, I am not making fun of them. It was so delightful being able to capture this moment in time with two people very much in love ... or, at the least, lust. If I'd have had my camera I would have asked to take their picture.

On my way out, I also noticed a not so young couple with two baby carriers tucked in on each side of their booth. I just had to stop and say, "Congratulations." Mom and dad beamed and introduced little Baleigh and Brooklyn (6 weeks old). Dad was holding mom's hand to his cheek and they seemed lost in their new little family.

I was blessed today. First of all, I started my day with a card, muffin and coffee compliments of Michael followed by a sumptuous lunch at one of my favorite restaurants with Beverly. Best of all, I got to get a glimpse of love in action. I left the restaurant telling myself, "This is what makes Valentine's Day special!!

I hope that you are being a little bit mushy and silly today celebrating with your special loves. It's okay, it's VALENTINE'S DAY!!