Tie o’ the Day shares its exuberant field of hearts. And we both wish y’all a Merry Valentine’s Day. If you are attached to someone, let them know they are precious and irreplaceable. Make it absolutely certain they know how you feel about them. If you are single, let yourself know you are precious and irreplaceable– because you are. You are enough, exactly because you’re you.
And then remind yourself you should treat your beloved and yourself this way every day, not just on Valentine’s Day. It’s the least you can do for someone who is so necessary to the grateful beating of your vast, glad heart.
Mom even let Dad know he was her one-and-only when he was out of town working the bees for a few days. She always tucked away a lovey-dovey or funny card in his suitcase for him to find when he got back to his motel room for the night. And I mean she stuck a card in there EVERY TIME he was off with his bees.
On one bee trip to California, Dad found a humongous ratty, dirty bra that had been left under his motel bed by a previous guest. He stuck it in his suitcase, hoping to get a rise out of Mom when she opened it to retrieve his dirty clothes to wash. So Dad got home, Mom got the clothes out of the suitcase. Dad was waiting to get yelled at for having a California girlfriend, and he heard nothing. No response from Mom. Finally, Mom tells Dad she’s not worried one bit he was with some dame because the bra is dirty and skanky, and she knows there is no way he would sleep with someone that dirty and gross. His prank. Her clever response. It turned out to be a great joke, on both their parts.
Dad got a bonus laugh about it when he told his coffee drinking buddies at Top’s the next morning. They were shocked he had dared put a bra in his suitcase for Mom to find. They said their wives would have killed them if they’d done that.
Mom thought the whole thing was so funny that she’s been telling the story to anyone who’ll listen since it happened, in the 70’s.
Now, that’s a solid marriage.