We were waiting in the car outside the ice cream parlor (where he was going to propose) when they came out the door. Juliet gracefully reached her arms around his neck and we assumed the proposal had taken place as planned.
But they quickly disappeared. We scoured the area, trying to determine where they had gone, completely bewildered how they could have vanished into seemingly thin air. A few minutes passed when movement caught my eye. They had been standing behind a large pillar, invisible to anyone parked in front of the stores.
Suddenly, in the reflection of the shop window glass, I saw Trevor lowering himself down on one knee. I gasped in surprise, exclaiming, "It's happening! It's happening!" I felt shocked, delighted, and thrilled to be experiencing something I didn't expect to see. Time moved in slow motion after that, Trevor on one knee reaching up to her with the ring, Juliet visibly caught in a swirl of unexpected surprise. Bringing her hands to her face, she cried. And we cried. I think Trevor's friends (who were hiding in the bushes) probably cried too...
The memory of the storefront window proposal is fixed in my heart and mind. I can still feel the thrill and the joy of it. :-)
Trevor loves my daughter. I can feel it. And last night, I saw it.
I have another memory of love also fixed in my heart and mind. I was at the airport in Barcelona, Spain about a year ago. Before beginning the shuffle through security, I noticed a couple in their late forties who were saying good-bye--who knows why. They were looking into each other's eyes, hands touching like they were trying to hang on, speaking in a foreign language, and sobbing. Sobbing. I have no idea what they were saying. But I felt their love for each other. It was tangible. And I saw the love through their tears and how they communicated with their touch.
That memory of love is as clear for me as the memory I made last night.
Valentine's Day is a mixed bag. (Personally, I think it should be made a day for women to take care of themselves in honor of the League of Women Voter's anniversary, and men ought to be taken off the hook. Most men are good and show their love every day...)
But in whatever form and with whomever you celebrate Valentine's Day, it is (as my friend Rob reminded me this morning), about love.
In honor of the love I've seen and felt, I wanted to make a post on Valentine's Day about the thing we live for, the principle of existence that gives us hope.
Love.
It makes life meaningful. It is "the master key that opens the gates of happiness." Oliver Wendall Holmes
Show your love.
Because you never know who is watching you and finding hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment