Just how much

    All Valentine's day with it's pink hearts, frills, and all it's terms of expressed endearments, I couldn't think of any way to adequately express my feelings for the one true love of  my life. So now that it is a new day, and  my heart is not so achy from missing Steve and sulking for his being gone on  my favorite Holiday of the year, I am able to think with more clarity and grasp what I couldn't have before. So here goes:

   The day after we were married,  I remember running with Steve to refill a parking meter, afraid that if he ran to fill it on his own, something might happen and we would be permanently separated for the rest of this life. We had just undergone a 5 month engagement no less than 8 states apart while he started his first job assignment in Schenectady, New York. Throughout the years, he's had to travel off and on as the job has required, and my anxieties have lessened through sincere, heartfelt prayer, although not completely diminished. Over time it's been intriguing  to note how throughout our lives we are sure to recognize the things that people do that are obvious to us, significant even. Things that make a difference and that bless us. But since my husband has been traveling a lot more lately, this being the 4th week running, I have been recognizing the "little" things that are even greater than the "big" things. Things that, when he's around, does--that significantly lighten my load, make my life easier, enjoyable even, while completing the monotonous tasks of the every day. It's amazing how much you can miss things like:

•  someone taking out the garbage without being asked
•  cleaning up a spill that someone else made
•  changing a diaper
•  picking up a crying child
•  getting the mail
•  wiping down the mirror
•  asking "what can I do to help"
•  reading a bedtime story to help put the kids to bed
•  a simple hug when they notice you are really down because they can tell even--when no one else can
•  starting the dishwasher when you forgot so that you'll wake up to a clean load
•  an unprovoked "I love you"
•  a kiss goodbye every time they leave

   These  are the things that I miss the most. The things that  make all the difference. The things that expess just how much someone truly cares and knows how to love. Completely. The little things that aren't so LITTLE. I'm grateful that I know such a love in my life...daily. I realize that in many ways he is my strength, always my support, my true love, my full joy, my calm in chaos. He completes me, he's my best friend. He truly is...

                                                                         the better half of me.