#229…Valentine’s Day at a New Level

Flowers are true love, chocolate the finest gift…if not diamonds… This morning I experienced the next level of love. Hub side-kick took some time thinking about this. I have been awaiting therapy for arthritis pressing on my nerve endings in my neck and somehow I had fallen between the cracks with an appointment and 4 weeks have passed and in a few more days, I finally, am scheduled for 3X’s a week. The pain is almost intolerable. This Valentine’s Day gift is from a loving husband, helpless to alleviate my pain, but he may have nailed it!

This is not my 1st marriage. I am not a spring chicken. Along the way, my faith in God has taught me about love. He sent me a wonderful husband, a difficult man at times, a stubborn Irishman who has his own thinking, sometimes a brick wall, whose mother did not teach him to pick up after himself, who can stand in front of the pantry and say “there are no pickles”…knowing that I’m fool enough to dig them out for him…

“Don’t ever ask me again where the damn pickles are the rest of your miserable life…I will never help you again…”

I’m getting a grip here folks…give me a minute…

But honestly, why do men stand in the MIDDLE of the room and say, “I can’t find my socks”, do they really expect them to jump up into their hands???????

Life is not perfect. Everything about life is hard. To have a bad marriage is hard, but to have a good marriage is ALSO hard. Considering the players, neither of us is perfect, maybe even I am less then perfect. The struggle and the pain is real. But I am old enough now, maybe, to realize the only person I can control is me. “Praise the Lord in all things”, quote God. In my anger, I remember this, sometimes in tears. But God’s calming ways wrap around my heart and I’m sorry for that anger…I don’t pray for Russ to change, I pray for patience, for me to get a grip on my tongue, for kindness in me. God answers those prayers, knowing the intentions of my heart, knowing what I need.

I love this man. We are a team. We work well together. We have to work at that. We are at our best TOGETHER! We have to work at that. It is hard to believe that a person works HARD to keep their homes clean, keep the yard and gardens looking beautiful, put in long hours working to get ahead, and not invest in  their marriages and faith in God? I have had to learn to keep that balance in my life, and it works! It is hard. It is daily.

This morning I will have him put the patch on my shoulder and might not have that pain for the 1st time in weeks. He may not throw that wrapper in the trash or put the lid on the Miracle Whip and put it away, but he is ALWAYS thinking of ways to help me. He is my gift from God, and I thank you, Lord.

Hopefully, I’ll be in good shape soon as the garage sales will be starting up in a month…and planting the garden…