Poetry

How Do I Love Thee?

Posted on December 9, 2011 Updated on December 9, 2011

I want to give my husband a super fantastic Christmas present but alas I am lacking super fantastic Christmas money. I am not going to make some cheesy coupon book. I have even toyed with the idea of making a personalized annual calendar of photos of the family and cool moments in our marriage. Honestly, I am stumped. You often hear your parents or grandparents say, “I don’t need anything.” It never dawns on you that you can reach a point in your life when there are no more gadgets or toys needed to make you feel whole. I think we are reaching that point. In case you don’t what that point is, it happens when you realize you either need to throw some things away or get a bigger place. All these things are spatial and quantifiable. I want to talk about the gifts of growing that are not quantifiable. I want to talk about the gift of love.

Earlier I posted that Love was the one word that the bible took time to define. This time I want to talk about the small things that endear a person to you. I want to talk about those little idiosyncrasies that make us loveable. Elizabeth Barrett Browning sat down one day in 1846 and began to pen a letter to her husband on all the ways in which she loved him, including telling this man that she loved him to “depth and breadth and height, my soul can reach, when feeling out of sight.” Mrs. Barrett said she loved him not only freely, but purely, in the sun and by candlelight. She even went on to tell him she loved openly and freshly with the faith of a child. You have to admit, that is really deep. I want to be deep too. Please keep in mind, I may be a wordsmith, but I am no poet, but I will give it a try.

Ode to My Man

I love you when you stripped out the locks,

I love you even when you don’t pick up your socks.

My heart beats in a rhythm that is often too fast,

especially when you eat pizza and get lots of gas.

I love that you listen, even though you don’t hear

But just in your eyes, I see that you’re near.

I love you in ways I don’t understand and am

often so proud that you are my man.

I see you in ways that make me stand tall, when you help

Out the neighbor, and say, “no trouble at all.”

I love the way we have carved out a life from

the first day that you stepped up and made me your wife.

I have loved you from the beginning of our life spent in days,

I cannot begin to count out all the ways.

I love who you are and who you let me be

I cherish the moments to grow old with thee.

December 10, 2011

Stay good to one another while taking a moment to enjoy the smaller joys in life. I know it is always cool to get a great big gift that cost a lot of money, but it is equally fantastic to receive a gift that took a lot of thought. Remember the reason for the season and don’t get caught up in the hype.