Mingled

She is receptive to my poetry, art, and musical endeavors. She has used her nursing degree to provide me and our children with a very comfortable life. Every word I’ve ever written about her falls short of her radiance. I wrote a song for her when I first became romantically interested which was a year or two into a friendship we had developed within a larger social group. I had a chance to play it for her back then. She could only reply “you’re awesome.” I believe she knew it was her song right there, a profession of love from some lonely minstrel. That was 18 years and two children ago. We were just dumb kids and maybe we still are but we find new ways to love each other and we try to urge each other to love ourselves with that same flexibility. Happiness is an “inside” job, after all. If we are happy with ourselves only then can we find happiness in others.

Tim

I feel like I’m the lucky one. We don’t have traditional roles. I cook we both clean. She’ll pull over our Stihl MS170 two stroke chainsaw and buck logs after a wind storm. It works most of the time and when it doesn’t we figure out why and we try and come up with a solution we both like. It’s hard ass work by two very committed and emotionally responsible adults. The rewards speak for themselves.