I often tell Mister – in passing, as one of us is heading out the door, for no reason at all – “You are the love of my life.” And each time I say it, I mean it. Doesn’t matter if I’m tossing the words over my shoulder or if I’m looking him in the eyes. That guy is the love of my life.
A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in the chair of my hair colorist. I hadn’t seen him (or my stylist) this entire year, as they are S-P-E-N-D-Y, y’all. They’re worth every dime, granted, but sometimes a gal has to save those dimes. This year I’ve chosen to budget, so seeing these talented hair artists had to wait. But I digress. So I was sitting in the colorist’s chair and we were catching up. He told me how much he’s missed seeing me, and talking with me. I reciprocated and knew we both meant it. Once he’d worked his magic, I moved to my stylist and began catching up with her. That, too, was wonderful and enjoyable. And during a quiet moment, as she worked her magic, I started thinking about how long I’ve known those two souls and how much we know of each other’s lives. We don’t hang out or anything, but we share. And we care. The hamster on my brain’s wheel kept running, straight through the end of my time at the salon and as I walked to my car. The resulting thoughts were – for me – huge.
What if we have multiple loves of our lives? When it comes to romantic relationships, I don’t believe we’re limited to a single soul-mate or anything like that. The world is just too danged big for that to pan out. But I’m not merely talking about romantic relationships anyway. I’m talking about love. I’m talking about best friends and favorite aunts – those souls we adore more than butter. Don’t we love those people? Don’t we smile when we think of them?
I consider myself incredibly blessed to love so many wonderful human beings. There are people I’d sit in traffic for. There are people I’d give a kidney to. And I feel honest-to-goodness love for these folks. Deep, abiding love. And loving these people, being there for them and giving to them when I can, only serves to heal the cracks in my heart. These people are good for me. And for some reason or another, they love me back.
So I’ve discovered I have many loves of my life. Mister is the romantic love of my life, and that relationship is all-encompassing – in a multitude of ways. But I also have other loves. And now that I understand just how important they are in my little world, I can’t stop smiling. Talk about an embarrassment of riches…