My Everlong Gift

Happy Valentine’s Day, Everyone

I won’t be putting up anything huge for the day, as I’m taking it off from pretty much everything except my wife and family.  However, I do want to leave you with a thought…it’s the one that I want to communicate to Joanna, this year.

Last year, we were very short of money and employment, and I told her that my gift to her would be the assurance that I would never be the man to whom Valentine’s Day was exceptional.  I don’t believe that it should be…I think a man should love his wife as if EVERY DAY were Valentine’s Day, and so I have made every effort to live that.  It occurs to me, now that I actually have some money and we’re both blessed with jobs, that my personality stands in the way of many traditions associated with gift-giving…tradition, itself, doesn’t rank very high with me as a valid reason for an action.

I want you to know, my darling, that if I ever come to you with a gift that isn’t wrapped, or without multitudinous candy, or a card, it is not due to my lack of care.

It is entirely against my nature to keep a gift from you for the duration that passes until we are in the right place and time for me to give it to you, so why would I try to hide it any further in wrapping?  I shower you with all the sweetness I can find in this world – no mere morsel could compare to that.

I take the most pride in the fact that I shall NEVER entertain a need to purchase someone else’s words in order to say what I feel.  From the very beginning, my words have…ARE…will be my Everlong Gift to you.  I love you, Joanna.

/hugs

YOUR “Good” Doctor

Words of Love

Sunshine and Super Bowl

Hey all, sorry it took me so long to put this up.  I was indisposed almost all of yesterday, then slept too long and had to work today.  However, I bring you two things which should definitely make up for my lackadaisicalness (“-ness” just doesn’t seem to fit on the end of that word…I think I may opt for “lackadaisicality” from now on, hehe).

Firstly, thank you SO much for my Sunshine Awards, Jingle, Artiste, and Isha.  I am a very new poet to your ranks, but you three have reached out to me anyway, the selfless implications of which are not lost on me at all.  Many thousand gratitudes to you three for making me feel so honored.

I wear it with pride and a smile

The Rules to Accept the Award were given to me as follows:

• Put the logo on your blog in your post.
• Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
• Link the nominees within your post.
• Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blogs.
• Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

I have done this, but I will also go a little farther in an effort to reward those who have awarded me.

In my appreciation of you three, I have composed my first Haiku ever especially for you.  I’ll give you a link on your pages, but I want it to be here, so that others may see what you inspire.  I hope it brings you as many smiles as you have brought me on these cold, dreary, wet days.

~

Sunshine provides the light by

which all burnt ground might

obtain renewed life within.

~

As for my end of the deal, here are those that I nominate in return.  I know it may seem like cheating to nominate the three who nominated me, but I consider them noteworthy without pause, as they are not only the dear recipients of, but the inspiration for, my lyrical gift.  Jingle, Isha, Michele, I love you all.

As for the other choices, I will choose those who have commented and built me up, in order to build them up.  I know many if not all of my picks will already have this award, but I hope it still means just as much coming from me.  Just as a side note, I don’t expect anyone to go through and find 12 more people…if you can, it’s good for you, but I just want you to know I’m thinking about how you’ve helped me.

• Beth
• Gerardine
• Kokot Severny
• Kat
• William
• Yousei Hime
• Wesley
• Gargoyle’s Roost
• David L. Harrison

I hope you all enjoy your sunshine!

Now, for the second bit, a humorous offering.  I’m not sure how many of you cared to see the Super Bowl, yesterday, but I was privy to it in the company of my family, and it was probably the best one I’ve seen in a few years.  It doesn’t hurt that my team won, mind you, but there were two main parts that my brother and I agreed we just HAD to blog about.

His post is at this link, and I give you my professional artistic rendition of the second play that made that game, where Manning threw the ball straight into Porter’s God-blessed waiting hands.  He promptly runs downfield to face a cadre of Colts waiting in ambush until he…:ahem:…INCINERATES THEM in a flash of divine energy and continues to stride, nonchalantly I might add, into the end zone.

I call it, "Lazerbeams." Enjoy.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and I’ll talk to you soon

The “Good” Doctor

Violet Blue

These were the wedding vows that I hand-crafted in about a week’s time just before June 6, 2008.  Of all my work, I am most proud of this one…the structure is as unique and the content is as dear as I know.  Keep in mind that this was in Australia, as my wife is Australian…yet she made a sacrifice to be with me that I’ll never forget or take for granted.  This fact helps explain some of the metaphors and imagery in the poem.

Violet Blue

I would steal rose’s Red to make Violet Blue,

just so I could be close to you

for at all times.

I would have the light be ours

and the shadows be only mine

for at all times,

as the moon harbors no regret.

~~~

I will keep our nights,

sometimes waxing strong

while others waning weak,

as the moon harbors no regret

that another sol could make him whole.

~~~

I delight in this virtue, by which we support one another:

that one man could shine so brightly because of his woman,

that another soul could make him whole

while he prepares the world for all her warmth and laughter,

~~~

And then she returns to land

that is a far darker place when she is away, sleeping

while he prepares the world for all her warmth and laughter

where people write about happily ever…

~~~

All of this is done for a chance

that they might share the sky before nightfall,

where people write about happily ever…

yet precious more than never notice

the colors of their setting love.

~~~

But those amongst their closest friends

would say that night is not the end:

the colors of their setting love

travel westward, far above

~~~

the two of us standing here

as all of our stars have gathered around, we’ll

travel westward, far above

the moon, with the devotion we’ve found—

I would steal rose’s Red to make Violet Blue,

just so I could be close to you,

for at all times to hold you true.

Anniversary

When She said yes, the very first time

This still makes me giggle!

Hey all; this one isn’t going to be quite as lengthy as my previous ones to date, as I’m spending most of my day celebrating my two-year wedding anniversary with my lovely wife.  It is hard to not sit here for a while and just mull over a few things with you, partially because I enjoy it and otherwise because I know that the only way this will succeed is for me to show consistency with my posting.  I will leave you with a short tidbit before I go, however.

Anniversaries are something that men are notorious for forgetting, or not being as romantic as they should be on such an occasion.  Our night is probably going to simply consist of a couple errands, perhaps stopping by and seeing the family, getting some New York style pizza, and cuddling on the couch.  It’s certainly not the most dashing night anyone has ever conceived, and I’ve felt sort of bad about myself for that reason.  Contemplating it on the way home from work, however, I realized today that I probably shouldn’t – for one reason alone, if not any other.

I celebrate every day I get to see her smiling face as I walk through the door.  A customer and her son were waiting in the shop today for her husband to arrive so they could eat.  When he did, his son shouted, “DADDY!” and she smiled as she remarked to us, “Don’t you wish you had someone that did that every time you walked in?”

In fact, no.  I don’t.  Because Joanna does that every time I come home.  She’ll never stop long enough for me to miss it, and I’ll never take that for granted.  For me, every day is an anniversary, but not in the same way as is traditionally accepted.  When I wake up, I am reminded of a time when I didn’t have her in my life, instead of the last time I did.  I like to think that this is one of the keys to a relationship that is always new: it’s not always about doing something completely new.  Sometimes, it’s about remembering those times when the simple things in life were completely out of your reach.

This means that my reach was, at one time, longer than I had thought.  So, I have hope that the same may be said of all my todays.