Your Finest Hour

This year has been rough. The past two years, actually. I don't have to tell you, you already know that. Pandemic, right? Work from home if you're lucky, or unemployed. Kids home all day, spouse too. Worries about having enough, dealing with sickness when sickness is so scary . And mamas, we worry anyway, don't we? All the time. All those late nights holding babies, then working the next day. Going all day after a sleepless night, preparing dinner or ordering pizza, washing those uniforms for the next day when all we want is sleep. Finding time to actually talk to our spouse. Putting all we have into all we do. Calling mom and dad to see how they are, finding time for a drink with the hubs before bed. And then, after all of that, you wake up at 2 am to hear crying. One of your littles is sick. This requires you, mama. So you hold and clean and comfort and rock and reassure. And know the whole time that you will be exhausted the next day, wondering while you're rocking, will I have to call off ? Can I still work?" It's so much, isn't it? What if I told you this is your finest hour? That moment you change a life? The exact moment in time you show another human being just exactly what love in action looks like? That moment that a person realizes, "Hey! I'm worth something! I am worthy of love!" Because guess what? That's what we do . We spend our lives showing others just how worthy they are of love, and attention, amd time. This is it mamas. This? Is your finest hour.

Deep Love

Today is Valentine's Day. All about love. Today I did what everyone hopes to do on this holiday. Spent the day with the love of my life, had an intimate meal for two, held hands and told each other of our love. Soinds great, yes? Our day was spent driving to a doctor's appointment after brain surgery for a tumor. The surgery went well, but the healing part-not so much. Too much after-surgery swelling caused problems, and an extensive acute physical rehabilitation stay. Today's doctor visit felt like skipping school, like a day out with dad instead of mom, like skipping Sunday school to play on the church playground. A bit naughty, a bit fun. Like a blind date with a person you completely hit it off with, while your friend and her boyfriend are bored to tears with each other. And then we went to lunch. Not a fancy restaurant, not even inside a restaurant. Fast food in the car, in a parking lot. If you haven't been in love, you won't understand, but...it might have been the best date we've had in years. Not the romantic, perfect, ethereal version of love you see in literature, but the real, real version of love. The version where you stick together no matter what, through thick and thin, through sickness and health-just like the vows. There's a sweetness that happens after some rough times together that the first blush of young love can't ever match. It's a mellow, familiar, deep, precious, essential-to-your-survival, type of love. The type of love that happens when you've been tested and survived. The type of love that happens when you would spare your SO any pain you could by taking it on yourself, but they won't let you.

I wouldn't trade our deep mellow love for anything in the world. Happy Valentine's Day honey. And Happy Every Day . I love you.