How To Love Her From 5,121 Miles Away

There's a plethora of quotes and sayings and memes about love.

How to express it...

How to show it...

How to give it...

How to receive it...

But something none of them can do…not a single one…is show you how to FEEL it.

You see that's the thing about love and true love.

We often try as hard as we can to write stuff or buy stuff or show stuff in an effort to truly let someone know how much they mean to us when, in fact, the best and only thing you should be doing is this.

Just love.

From the heart…

From the soul…

From the depths of your being…

Just love.

I wrote this to my wife, from 5,121 miles away, and as I wrote, I'll be the first to share and bare this openly…I cried.

It should feel like that.

***** Rick picks up his pen now, Valentines Day 2021 *****

Waking up alone

I see you.

Yeah. You. Reading this.

Maybe you're still in bed and grabbed your phone...you might be up, brewing coffee and reading this while it brews...

But I see you.

For some folks, this will be just another Sunday...

And for others, there'll be flowers, cheesy Hallmark cards that come from good intentions but are, well, cheesy...

Some will reflect on love past, lost or fleeting...and then realize that this is indeed just another Sunday (back to square one)...

I wonder, though, if it's possible to be all three at once?

You see, as I woke up today, in a remote part of the world, I knew it was the day of love, yet rolling over, the pillow next to me was empty.

So I slept in a bit. Woke up at 9am (2am back home).

I guess I kinda thought (hoped?) that going back to sleep and re-waking up might change the emptiness of the space next to me.

Nope.

Still empty.

I stared at the ceiling a bit.

There was light peeping through the curtains. At least the sun was out. That's a good sign.

I felt around for my phone.

It's a habit.

If she was here, the phone would be the SECOND thing I'd grab. (I'll let you ponder that on your own).

Before I actually opened my iPhone up, though, I paused a sec., the following three things ran through my mind...

1. Today was just another day...another Sunday, to be precise.

2. No knock on my door with cheesy Hallmark cards in the mail...

3. My mind went to empty pillows, memories past, and of course, memories to still be made...

Her.

I opened my phone up.

And I saw this.

Tell someone you love them today.

***** Rick is typing now *****

This brings me to the deeper, and truer meaning of this short essay, long poem, medium size article, or what have you.

The commercialization of love. Specifically Valentines Day.

Now I get it.

Some folks don't like to write and others simply don't have the time to whip up a batch of chocolate covered strawberries. So we break out that plastic and head to The Hallmark shop. Or we hop online and with a few clicks have some berries, cookies, or fruit arrangement delivered to that special someone all in the name of...LoVe?

But is it?

Is it really?

While I totally get that we may not have time but isn't there a saying that simply says we make the time for things that matter?

Doesn't love matter?

At least enough to grab a pen and write...

At least enough to dunk some berries in chocolate...

At least enough to create and show some authentic creation that springs from our heart and soul and that says to the other person..."DAMN, I love you!"

So when you really think about it, love has, in some way, shape, and form, been commercialized.

Maybe I need to start a poem writing business and call it the De-Commercialization of Love and write short and super sweet haikus, limericks, or sonnets and capitalize on the whole commercialization of love thing.

Hmmmmm....

But I digress....

We've made love easy. We've made it UN-personal. We've made it feel "less than" and as I tease out even more thoughts the bigger fact is we've also made the ending of love just as simple.

Heck, divorce is a wicked de-personalization of love and now with the stroke of a pen, we can end...uhm...love.

In my romantic, headstrong, yes I am in love with my wife opinion, we need to get back to basics and just wear our hearts on our sleeves and if we cannot do that then perhaps it really wasn't love to begin with.

There's simply no other way to define love.

There isn't.

It's not open to argument nor interpretation.

When you feel it in your heart, then you know it's the real thing.

Tell someone you love them today.

Seriously.

Do it…and mean it.