Last night, I sneezed so hard I peed my pants. I’m not even kidding. I told Brad, who was not surprised. He just shook his head, chuckling. Let’s just say it’s not the first time this has happened…and he still thinks it’s fairly amusing and slightly endearing. Thank God.
Earlier in the night, I’d fallen to pieces. Missing my dad – wishing he’d been at Ryder’s 3rd grade concert that evening, wishing he’d be cooking the Thanksgiving turkey as usual, wishing I’d stop seeing things that would be perfect to get him for Christmas. There Brad and I stood, me all snot-nosed and blotchy-faced for what felt like the millionth time in six weeks, and he just wrapped me up in his arms.
Great big love reveals itself in little moments, in subtle gestures. Ones that melt away the burdens of the day. Marketers want us to believe otherwise, carefully crafting tug-at-the-heartstrings holiday commercials in which love looks like fancy cars wrapped in big red bows, diamond necklaces under the Christmas tree, or proclamations of love written across the sky.
Don’t get me wrong – I’ll take a sweet present now and then. But the gifts that let me know I’m truly loved do not cost a thing. They show up in knowing glances, in shared laughs, in the space between the lines.
{The painting above is my latest piece – You Are So Loved – for Art Every Day Month. Day 16!}
