My Heart

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and I'm reminded of how quickly another year has gone by.  We have no big plans to mark the occasion.  We're sort of over that in our relationship.  Still, it's a good time to remember why we are with the one we are with.

I met Reuben when I was sixteen.  He was eighteen and out of school.  I was just about finished with my sophomore year in high school.  I had always had this habit of falling for boys that weren't as into me as I was into them.  So, I spent many many months, even years, of my life chasing after one boy or another.  Oh I had some boyfriends that had initiated the relationship before, but they were short-lived.  There was just something about the chase that I thrived on.  At this particular time in my life, I wasn't too focused on any one boy.  I guess I wasn't really looking for a guy. 

I was cruising town with two girlfriends of mine.  We were riding in my friend, Kathy's, Toyota Previa van.  It looked like a giant egg.  It was white and ugly.  We spotted these three guys driving a Camaro, and Kathy followed after them.  When we finally got them stopped, they agreed to join us in the van for some cruising.  As it turns out, Reuben was one of those guys.  He seemed to take an immediate interest in me.  I recall him sitting a little too close to me and feeling my knees.  Weird, huh?  He said I had pointy knees.  Anyway, from that night on, I couldn't seem to shake him.  He pursued me.  A week later I agreed to go on an actual date with him.  That is the date I consider our dating anniversary.  It was April 6, 1991.  The rest is history.  He won me over with his romantic ways. 

Nearly nineteen years later, it's hard to believe he was ever that romantic.  That guy is a distant memory.  It doesn't really matter, though.  We've had our share of bad times and good times.  Somehow, we've managed to work our way through it all.  The fact that he still chooses to wake up next to me every morning is romance to me.  The fact that he's a GREAT father to our boys is romance to me.  The fact that he chose me those many years ago is romance to me.  Of course, there are times I'd like more, but I just remind myself that I am a lucky woman to have this man in my life.  I don't deserve him, but don't tell him that!

I hope that you, like me, have someone to spend this Valentine's day with.  Don't get too caught up in the gifts or motions of the occasion.  Just choose to be happy for what you have year round.