I can remember what it was like not to feel loved, or safe. 

Brushing a tear from my cheek, I closed the book that I’d been reading.  I threw back the heirloom quilt that covered me and climbed off the wicker sofa on my front porch.  I walked in my woolen socks to the south side railing that looked over the pond and set the book down. My arms propped me up like an easel on the cedar rail.  Deep in thought I watched the sun drop lower and lower in the late afternoon sky.   The gold, pink, and orange light filtered through the willow trees like silent fireworks going off on the other side of the pond.  With a sigh, I grinned.

This is my favorite time of day…when I know that he anticipates me waiting for him.  Once you know someone, it is so easy to please them.  Ah, the breeze picked up – I hear it in the trees.  Gently his fragrance surrounded me.  I closed my eyes and let my heart hear him… 

I hear his footsteps as he came up behind me and kissed the top of my head.  “Hmmm,” he said.  “You always smell so good.”  He wrapped his arms around me and we both stood and watched the ripples on the water as the moon came up.  I leaned my head back against his shoulder and chuckled, “It is you that smells good!”  He laughed and squeezed me.

He brushed a finger across the cheek that was still wet.  “Have you been reading again,” he asked?  I grabbed his hand and held it to my face.  “You know I can’t help it,” I told him.  “I will never get tired of reading your love letters.”

I felt him swallow, overcome with emotion.  “You have no idea” he said “what that does to me.”  A tear dropped down my face again and rolled across the back of his hand.  “You have no idea” I said “what you do to me.”  He scooped up my tear and enclosed it in his palm.  He turned me to face him.   I looked up and wondered what I had ever done to deserve him.

I saw the flame in his eyes as he heard my heart’s silent question.  I watched his hair blow in the breeze.  I saw the shiver that raced through him as he said to me, “You have a value that only I could pay.  You are a treasure that I gave everything for.  You deserve me because I said so.”  He picked up the book that I had been reading, smiled and said, “And you know it!  These words prove it.”  He put the book in my hands, leaned forward and whispered in my ear, “Thank you for believing my love letters.” 

When I looked up at him I said, “Jesus…I do…oh, I do.”  In a moment he was back in my heart but as I looked down at the Holy Bible I smiled.  He will always be back again.

Happy Valentine’s Day…every day.

Patti Corbello Archer

February 10, 2013