Valentine's Day

For me, every day is Valentine's Day.  That's because I live with the love of my life, the most wonderful woman in the world.  I know how lucky I am.

My girl is beautiful, physically beautiful.  She's a spitfire with redhair, tall, curves in all the right places.  She has the most beautiful eyes, the most graceful hands, and lips soft as rose petals.  I'm so proud when we walk together because I know how envious other men must be.

Were her only attraction physical, this would be a superficial love story.  But Karen's loveliness is deeper, far deeper, than her outer appearance.  Karen is one of the kindest, most generous, most thoughtful people I've ever known.  To put it simply, she's the best person I've ever known.  She does the little things for people that are unexpected simply because she wants to make them smile. 

She's patient.  Anyone who knows me knows how difficult I can be.  It's not that I leave the toilet seat up, throw my clothes on the floor expecting her to pick them up or expect her to make dinner for me.  It's other stuff, stuff that for some people is far more difficult.  She's no saint, as she'd readily admit, but she puts up with more than her fair share.

She has made our family fun and comfortable.  Her love of bullies has brought us Sherman, Custer and Stonewall.  She makes things right for our family and sees to it that everything is in its proper place. 

She cooks better than anyone has a right to expect.  The confections she bakes are the reason I'm not on the cover of GQ (well, that and the fact I have no willpower in the face of them...).  She always looks for new and interesting recipes to try and then makes them better than how they were intended.

She is more resilient than anyone I know.  Were one to listen to the number of maladies from which she suffers, it wouldn't be believed.  Yet each day, almost without fail, she gets up and goes about her business with a smile on her face and a song in her heart.  The only thing that belies that she's suffering is the she goes sleepless far too many times for her or anyone's good.  Rarely, if ever, does she get crotchety or quarrelsome.

But more than anything, she loves me better than I have any right to expect.  She always tells me how handsome I am.  She always tells me how sweet I am.  She gives me confidence and bucks me up when I'm down on myself.  She's affectionate and sassy.  She's younger than her years and always more fun than anyone alive. 

There's little question why I love her so.  She's the darling of my heart, the love of my life.  I can't imagine life without her and wonder how I lived before I met her.  I regret not having met her sooner and wonder daily how our lives would have been different if we'd been allowed to meet earlier in life.  I will love her until beyond the end of time since I've loved her long before I was ever born.

Happy Valentine's Day, sweetheart.

And thank you for loving me so well.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles