Writing a Love Letter.
You know you don’t get up every morning and decide to write a love letter. Sometimes you get busy at work or in your own life with house and children and activities and elections. But there are times when the focus of your attention comes to your life partner, your lover, your soul mate. It could be a longing for more closeness. It could be that there is an event where it focuses attention away from those other things and brings you to your wife or husband. Sometimes it is a crisis a friend is having where there was a final breakup with their mate and you think about all the things that you value in your relationship with your own mate and you see how important it is to have that person in your life.
But even with all those motivations, sometimes it is hard to put pencil to paper. You think about all those things that are important about the one you love and it is a mish-mash of feelings. And writing down those things can sometimes not make sense.
So when I am looking for that inspiration, I can look up words to songs or poems that I have run across in many forms. And then the feelings come true and they can be put into words. It could be just a single line in that prose or it could be the entire song shows how you truly feel about your wife. And then you build off of that.
Yes, the song is the inspiration, but their words are not yours. In fact, you can edit your own words in the letter that shows your true feelings towards your wife. So I saw a comment on Twitter from the Associate Dean at Ithaca College’s Park School of Communications, Bryan Roberts said: “I spent the morning reflecting upon the amazing women in my life. I am a lucky man.” So I built off of that and my feelings came out:
I reflect upon my 25th anniversary with my wife, Ellen, it’s been a wild ride – 2 wonderful grown children, 4 cats, and a dog, illness, loss, joy, travel, moving, job changes….I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
That’s my real feelings as I reflect upon my life with Ellen. But you want to see my love letter. See it next. I gave it to her on our 25th wedding anniversary.
Dear Ellen,
I think about the last 25 years with you as my wife, I had to sit down and grab my pen and paper and write it all out. Tried to summon all that my heart finds true and send it in a letter to you. I said many times that before we were married, I did not have a direction. I had left home, gone to college, and got a job, but it seemed like I was floating in the sea going with the tide pushing me around to different places. I lived in Illinois and then Michigan and I had hobbies and never lacked things to do. But there was no direction that I was going. Until I met you.
So when I met you, I went towards you. It is not like I changed, I was the same person, just went in my true direction. I have had a great ride. I found that I needed to be a good husband. I needed to be a good father as we had two children. We found a house and community to live. We found a church to help us discover our true purpose. And through all the hard times and good times, we were going towards where we wanted OUR life to go. And I signed up for all of it.
Over the years, I told you of all my fears and doubts. All the things I found out about me. All the things I discovered to be true. I confided this to you. And you loved me for who I was and you supported me through all the years. The sunshine and rain of life. The pain and happiness. You were there with me and for me. And each morning I woke up with you, the sky was always blue.
Which brings me to today. I found that I had another direction and you were on board with that too. We changed everything in 2020 and I see a new path that we are on. We are not there yet, but you know life is never about the destination, but it is about the journey to get there. I always wanted this journey to include you with me.
So as I reflect on 25 years of marriage to my one true love, I treasure the journey we are on and the direction we are going and I want to get there together and I will give you all that I have, mind, body, and soul. And write it down today as my promise to you.
I Love You
Your forever true love
Gene
Comments