Valentine's Day was a very good one at our house this year. It was our 18th one together, which seems amazing to me because I never thought I would be with anyone this long. It is not easy, but what blazing adventure ever is easy? I don't have the art of relationship or marriage figured out at all. But I do know this. It is important to pause and pay attention to the soul living with you, to recognize how your partner is changing, to listen, and to laugh together. This week while my husband has some vacation time we are attending to the closeness between us, a shared space of the heart.
A veterinarian in my town died last week at age 61. It's been over a decade since we began taking our pets to a different vet, so I hadn't seen him in awhile and do not yet know the cause of death. Still, the obituary was a shock to read and to learn that he and his wife had been married for 40 years. She I have seen around town throughout the years and I've always enjoyed a quick chat with her because she has a wild sense of humor and she always makes me laugh.
She with her wild sense of humor and he with his wry wit seemed to just go together. I have thought of their 40 years: marrying young, the journey through vet school, moving to this town to set up the clinic, working together the early years of the practice, having two sons who are the spitting image of their dad.....
This song is from one of Emmylou Harris' more obscure albums (Stumble Into Grace), one that I get in the mood to hear for days on end about once a year.....as I have lately. She wrote the song about her friends Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and, although the lyrics are personally their story they seem universal in describing long-term marriage and the soul-mate connection.
May you know love like that.
Strong Hand (Just One Miracle) - lyrics
He was a tall man Raised up from the fields out pickin' cotton In a hard land Where the ground was poor and the wood was rotten But when he saw her All those bad times were forgotten And he believed, he believed
She was the strong hand A good sister and a daughter Lookin' for one man To love the way that her mama'd taught her And when she saw him She thanked God for what he'd brought her She believed, she believed
And it's a miracle How one soul finds another Just one miracle Is all it took my brother For l have seen them As they walk this world together And i believe, l believe
It's a sad thing When one must leave the other And fly up where the voice rings Out with all the multitudes that gather But for a short while
Down here no song ever sounded sweeter And we believed, we believed
For it's a miracle How one soul finds another Just one miracle Is all it took my brother And l will see them Someday they'll walk again together l believe, l believe This l believe, l believe
