I had a dream last night. A pleasant one. It was all about love, specifically that first intense wave of feeling when you know someone is the one, when leaving them is about as difficult as leaving a warm fire to go outside on a cold winter day. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy when I woke up.
For long-married couples such as my husband and I, love matures into a strong, comfortable emotion. A successful relationship is an amalgam of thought, emotions and feelings that include passion, compatibility, faithfulness, friendship, desire, need, caring, loyalty and devotion. The crazy intensity of new love, however, has long dissipated. so it was kind of fun to feel it again for a brief bit of time in my subconscious the other night.
That the dream came at this time of year is not particularly surprising given that I’ve been spending the past couple of days trying to figure out what one does to make this Valentine’s Day special for someone you’ve loved as long as you can remember. My hubby and I aren’t the kind of people who make a big deal out of Feb. 14, but we do like to acknowledge it in what I think is a grown-up approach. After all, in our three decades and a bit together we have come through good and bad more in love than when that first intense wave of feeling hit oh those many years ago. That’s worth celebrating.
Why ignore a day that celebrates what many others have failed to achieve? Romance, after all, is good for everyone, providing the setting to focus on what made you fall in love in the first place.
So with four days remaining before Valentine’s Day arrives, here are some great illustrations from iCLIPART.com that celebrate love and romance — grown-up style:
