Every year she asks him what he’d like for Christmas…
If there’s any special present he’d like to unwrap Christmas Day.
Every year she asks…
even thought she already knows what he’s going to say.
It’s the same wish I make every year…he smiles
and for many years now it has come true….
I’d like another year surrounded
by my family,
my friends…
and another year with you.
May you be lucky, if you haven’t already,
to find someone in your life
Who every day makes you feel a little stronger…
Who makes you wish you could turn back the clock
so you would find them a little sooner
and be able to love them a little longer.
There are those who say that love is invisible…
that it’s a feeling we cannot see…
and although I am no expert…
forgive me if I disagree.
Because in all my years upon this Earth
I have come to believe
love is often times quite obvious
and easy to perceive..
That it permeates our senses…
It can be seen heard, tasted, felt…
and above all shared
that when you stop to look around
you can see love is everywhere
Love comes in a myriad of shapes and sizes
in countless forms both large and small…
that I could’t possibly in one poem…
communicate them all…
But as we head into this holiday season
I imagine we need love more than we ever needed it before…
So today I bring you 2 definitions of love:
one from Tommy who is 6…
and one from Maryann…who’s 4.
Love, according to Tommy…(I’ve added in the rhyme)
is when an old lady and a old man are still good friends
even though they’ve known each other…for a long, long time.
Maryann defines love in a totally different way…
It’s when you’re pet dog licks your face, she says
even though you’ve left it home alone all day.
And so my wish for you is simple…
that sometime before you life is done…
if you haven’t already felt Tommy’s or Maryann’s love…
you will have experienced…at least one.
On a beautiful summer evening…
late in the month of June
they stood together…hand-in-hand
under a bright Strawberry Moon.
As they looked into each other’s eyes
they promised to find a way
to love each other forever…
forever and a day.
And they built a life together
happily fulfilling that vow…a little every day…
until an illness…love could not cure…
took one of them away.
Reminding all of us who love…to always find a way
to show that love to one another…
a little every day….
To love as they did…every moment of their life….
from that summer evening in late June….
because when you choose to love someone forever….
forever…
will always come too soon.
Love is just a word…like any other word….
It will not soar or dance or sing
until we impart on it…it’s meaning
until we provide that word it’s wings.
Life was simple for my Grandpa…when it came to love…
“It is something to be cherished.” He’d say, “and bask in the beauty of.”
“Love doesn’t have to be hard.” He’d say. “It truly is as easy as it seems.
It’s when two people come together and give life to each other’s dreams.”
“It’s finding someone who helps make you a better person than you were before you met.
It’s knowing…as wonderful as yesterday was with this person….
today will be better yet.”
Grandpa and Grandma were married over 50 years…
For 50 years the two of them loved having the other one around.
May we all be blessed in life…to find the simple kind of love they found.
May we all be blessed know the kind of quiet, beautiful love
that a loud and boisterous love lacks…
The kind of love that
when it softly whispers to your heart…
your heart smiles…
then softly whispers back.
I wish people would understand…
before it is too late…
How a face full of anger, prejudice and fear…
only open doorways into hate…
And if hate is something we are hoping
to rid this planet of….
How we should greet each other with a smile…
which opens a doorway into love..