The Heart Of The Matter

According to the GPS on my phone, Mike and I live exactly 1100 miles apart, door to door.  And yet, even eleven hundred miles apart, he has made this my favorite Valentine's Day!

I have gotten so many packages and cards over the past month leading up to Valentines Day that I'm calling this Valentines Month.  He's sent dancing boots, a beautiful pearl ring, a silver charm bracelet with a heart charm, a red heart finial for the lamp he made me in October, and several  frames for new glasses he thinks will look good on me.  He knows exactly what I like and spends his days finding ways to show me what Mike Love looks like!

When Elena came over, she saw two packages at the door and said, "What?  More presents from Mike? He sends us a lot of presents, Yenna!"  It's been fun having her here to share the opening of presents--she pronounces everything "beautiful."  Here she is wearing a pair of my cat-eye glasses:

My Valentine and I are different.  I'm a reader; he's a dancer.  I'm a minimalist; he's a collector.  I'm rule-conscious (either following them or feeling guilty when I don't); he lives from the heart, eating, driving, buying, doing whatever he feels like. "No rules at Brown Mule Farm," he says.

If a friend or stranger needs something, he's there.  If we're shopping behind someone who doesn't have quite enough money, he pays.  He recently ordered a generic class ring from eBay for Rocky (a mentally challenged man who works for him who never finished high school and has always wanted a class ring.)  Rocky speaks in a way that few people can understand, but Mike can.  "B- B- Best friend," he said to Mike this week.

Last week, he took valentine cards and sweets to the women at the bank and post office.  He still gets calls every day from friends, some of whom he's had since high school. He lives from his heart, often intuiting something that's bothering me long before I know what it is.

The differences between us may be what other people notice, and--in fact--they may account for our break up seven years ago.  But what drew us together the first time--and again in October--is beyond lists of similarities and differences.

Feeling seagulls on our last trip to Georgia

He never met a dog he doesn't like.
Here he is with Nathan's Skippy at Christmas

I love my Valentine because of his happy heart and his creative ways of expressing love for me.  I love his strength and his vulnerabilities, too.  I love the heart of this man, eleven hundred miles away who calls me "Sweetheart."

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY, MIKE!