I was looking through some old files the other day and came across the following story that I first published seven years ago for Valentine’s Day. I thought it would be fun to send it to you today, with my affection and thanks for the way you make my heart smile . . .
A Love Story, and Cookies
I’ve built a Goldilocks Room for us today. Not too hot, not too cold, no rain, sleet, wind or snow. Just perfect temperatures and gentle breezes all the way around. Come in, and help yourself to the feel-good cookies and well-being tea over there on the table. As you can see, they both come in an assortment of your very favorite flavors. Have all you want. There’s an endless supply.
And while you enjoy your treats, let me tell you a little story. It’s a love story, actually, in honor of of Valentine’s Day. Like you, I’m a romantic at heart. I get all gooey inside when True Love triumphs over all the uncertainties that life hurls in its way.
Those uncertainties are growing exponentially these days. When I was a little girl, the telling of love stories was a simple matter. Every story was a variation of boy-meets-girl, they fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after. The end.
Now it could be boy meets boy, or boy-turned-girl meets boy, or girl-turned-boy meets boy, or, according to the latest gender classifications, any of 50-some variations. In the near future, I’m told, it may even be human-of-any-gender meets tender-hearted robot, programmed with the highest levels of emotional intelligence.
Those who wrote love stories in the last century didn’t have to worry about what pronouns to use, whether “he and “him” or “she and “her” would offend. Now you have to wonder whether a sensitive robot would be hurt if you called it, well, “it.”
But so be it. Love, I suppose, shouldn’t be roped in by arbitrary barriers. It should be free to any and every heart, because life is tough, and we all need all the love we can get.
So, in our story, A meets B and they fall madly in love. They laugh and walk together. They like the same kinds of meals and fun. They talk into the wee hours of the night, amazed at how similarly they look at life, how much they have in common. They love holding each other’s hands, and when they kiss, the world melts away. They envision shared tomorrows that stretch on and on across the years, and after a while, they pledge their hearts to one another with solemn promises to see things through together, come what may.
So far, it could be anybody’s story. But this one has another happy twist, because these two found the key that kept their promises strong and saw them through the rough spots, come what may. They learned the Secret of Appreciation, of looking for things to respect and admire in one another, and they told each other what wonderful little things they saw in each other day after day after day.
And so each became to the other a treasure, a source of endless beauty and joy. They saw each other’s strengths and sweetnesses, they saw the little habits and gestures and expressions that made their partner unique. And every day they would say to each other, “You know what I like about you?” And the years unfolded, filled with their friendship and kindness and love. And they lived happily ever after until the end of days, and their love made the world a happier, better place.
The end.
Now you know the Secret, too. And it works for every kind of relationship there is—for lovers, for friends, for bosses and their employees, for coworkers, for parents and kids, for you and the clerk at the grocery store or the stranger on the street. Notice, appreciate, and say so, and make the world a happier place.
Wishing you love,
Susan
Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay