I have had a small gold frame sitting on my dresser top for the past thirty years.  It holds a newspaper clipping that I carefully cut out and saved so many years ago, and the words are as true today as they were then.  Ann Landers, the advice columnist, had this to say about love:

Love is friendship that has caught fire.

It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving.

It is loyalty through good and bad times.

It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.

If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things that are missing.

If you don't have love in your life, no matter what else there is, it's not enough.

These past six months have been hard ones for my family, and love is what has seen us through some painful and sorrowful times.  Love for our parents, our siblings, our aunts and uncles and cousins, our special friends, and of course, our spouses.  Through crises, dramas and days that you think will never end, through those nutty moments that leave you wondering how the heck did I get myself into this mess, and those hysterical moments when you catch your husband's eye and know he is thinking exactly the same thing you are (which is probably--how the heck did you get yourself into this mess?), those moments when you finish each other's sentences...that's when you remember how very blessed you are to have someone beside you on life's journey.  

I am so lucky to be married to my best friend, the man who knows me so well and is my number one supporter in whatever new adventure I tackle.  I've written about a few of my favorite literary couples this week--Jane and her Mr. Rochester (Jane Eyre), Lizzie Bennett and her Darcy (Pride and Prejudice), and Anna and her Mr. Bates (Downton Abbey), but in the story of my life, my husband is my one and only, very special Valentine. 

Instead of a poem today here are the lyrics to 'our song':

A One in a Million You

song by Larry Graham

Love had played it's games on me so long
I started to believe I'd never find anyone
Doubt had tried to convince me to give in, said, "You can't win"
But one day the sun came a shinin· through
The rain had stopped and the skies were blue
And oh, what a revelation to see
Someone was saying "I love you" to me

A one in a million chance of a lifetime
And life showed compassion
And sent to me a stroke of love called "You"
A one in a million you

I was a lonely man with empty arms to fill
Then I found a piece of happiness to call my own
And life is worth livin·again
For to love you to me is to live

A one in a million chance of a lifetime
And life showed compassion
And sent to me a stroke of love called "You"
A one in a million you
A one in a million chance of a lifetime
And life showed compassion
And sent to me a stroke of love called "You"
One in a million you
A one in a million you

Happy Valentine's Day to my very special husband!

And since it really wouldn't be 'my' blog without a tea reference, here's a special Valentine for all my blogging friends!