Love
is …..
If you’re from the 70’s era (like I
am) you’ll remember Kim Casali’s cartoon’s following the Love Story’s theme … Love
is never having to say you’re sorry.
What is love?
I went through a nasty Lupus flare
over Christmas. This, added to Covid lockdown restrictions that meant not being
able to shop at the mall and mingle with the Christmas crowd, savour the
atmosphere of glitter and tinsel, and jiggle to the jingle of jolly Christmas
music, meant a pretty dull and boring Christmas. Right?
Wrong.
Looking back, it was a very special
Christmas for us, as a couple. For the first time, in the nearly 43 years that we
have been together, I was not in charge of the kitchen or the cooking,
the decorations and traditional Christmas eve dinner. Granted, this was something
I always enjoyed with the children and grandchildren, gathered around our then,
ample dining-room table. Last Christmas, it was just the two of us in our little
retirement cottage with a few sprigs of greenery, roses from the garden, red
paper serviettes and a retrieved teddy-bear dressed in Christmas regalia to go
with a delicious dinner – cooked and served by my husband. It was so
romantic!
My point?
It’s post-Valentine’s Day. A celebration we associate with gifts, cards,
flowers and heart-shaped balloons. It’s superficial romance really. Bling compared
with true love. True love is challenging, but it also out the best in us. Love
means making sacrifices. Doing things that will make your partner happy – even
if you’re not over the moon about them yourself (like watching football instead
of a movie). It’s living those wedding vows: loving one another in sickness and
in health, in good times and in bad, till death. A pretty big commitment.
Don’t let Monday erase the romance
of Sunday. Treasure true love today and every day.
