This week's writings would normally deal with the year 1975. It was the year I began school with a wonderful kindergarten teacher named Mrs. Green, whom I adored. This year also marked the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War and the rise in the cost of oil as well as inflation. Even with all the world events taking place, my focus was squarely on being a rambunctious kid enjoying the innocence of youth. Rather than focus on the year, I thought I would focus my writing on a powerful entity that my young mind was starting to recognize…love.
Love is such a unique word that is considered both a noun and a verb. Its depth and meaning are interpreted and held differently by each individual. Most of us hear the word and probably think of an intense feeling of deep affection or finding great pleasure in something. As a verb, it can be a strong feeling for someone or something. Or it could simply mean zero as in the game of tennis, which seems kind of bizarre considering how powerful the word is throughout the world. As a tennis player, I never gave it much thought as to why love equaled zero but I’ve heard it theorized that love arose from the French word for “egg,” l'oeuf, because a zero on a scoreboard resembles an egg. I would probably equate the term “love” in tennis to balance with both players on equal footing. Isn’t that what love in life really should mean? Regardless of the irony, I still absolutely love the game of tennis.
February 16th is a very special day and I feel fortunate to get to write a post on such a wonderful occasion. On this day in 2008, I married the love of my life, Sarah. Today we celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary and I still feel lucky as heck that she chose me. I’m not the easiest person to get along with but she loves me regardless of my rough edges. I knew the very first time we met that I would spend the rest of my life with her. I love her more than anything in this world…even tennis. This is not to say that we don’t drive one another absolutely insane. In fact, I’m quite certain that on any given day she would rather light me on fire than hug me. However, we’ve always found our way back to the center and appreciate the uniqueness of who we are as individuals. We remember that through thick or thin, our love remains the constant fabric of our life which binds us together.
In 1975 I would be turning 6 years old and Sarah would be turning one and here we are, 45 years later celebrating 12 years together. As I wrote last week in my post about “Patience & Time”, I didn’t know what the feeling was at the time but could easily recognize the palpable vibration of the universe. It was reassuring me that she was out there and that one day our paths would meet. Today, I feel truly blessed and thankful that feeling so long ago came true.
Happy Sunday everybody!
7 of 50 - 1975