Friday, January 5, 2007

A Day Truly Made in Heaven

Singer-songwriter David Wilcox sings a song that one by one holds up for admiration the various attributes of a loved one -- sense of humor, hopefulness, compassion, willingness to listen, a taste for what will last. Ultimately, however, at the end of each stanza, he concludes that it is this person's kindness that he loves best. Perhaps the most romantic thing I have ever done (although that doesn't set a very high bar), perhaps the most heartfelt thing I have ever done was to learn the song and sing it on the day that I proposed to the woman who is now my wife. Now into our 10th year of marriage, I still adore her kindness, but have long since given up as hopeless the game of reducing my affections to a single favorite.

Today is her birthday -- the number of which is her business to tell, not mine -- and though she'll have some opportunity to unwrap a thing or two in celebration of the occasion, the gift, I'm almost wordlessly able to express, is mine. A smile so bright and warm it's as though the sun itself inhabits her face; an indomitable hope, a capacious heart, a radiant spirit, a playfully inquisitive affection for discovery...

...and, yes, kindness. Life in my company has afforded her more than ample opportunity to practice forgiveness, though her patient and thoughtful generousity in proffering it betrays little need for continuing improvement. But then creating the relational space in which all kinds of people can start over is part of the music she regularly and artfully makes.

Whatever else, then, today is about -- celebration, remembrance, laughter and pampering -- it is most of all a day of throat-lumping gratitude. It is her birthday, and for such a birth I haven't a clue how to adequately give voice to my thanks. I doubt this is what the psalmist had in mind when he affirmed it, but the words have taken on special and particular meaning for me these last ten January fifths:

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118)









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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How beautifully you express your gratitude for the gift you have found in Lori.
She is lucky as well, for the person who finds a partner who is so devoted is indeed blessed.
And thanks be to God, who is the giver of all good gifts!