Love Me Tender

My Valentine brought me wildflowers before I opened my eyes this morning (took the photo later).

Extra of Mourão as we walked to church tonight for the Ash Wednesday service.

Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday only coincide three times each century. The next time will be 2029 — and then these two days won't coincide again until 2170.

Thought this poem by CS Lewis was appropriate:

Love's as warm as tears, 
   Love is tears:
Pressure within the brain,
Tension at the throat,
Deluge, weeks of rain,
Haystacks afloat,
Featureless seas between
Hedges, where once was green.

Love's as fierce as fire,
   Love is fire:
All sorts - infernal heat
Clinkered with greed and pride,
Lyric desire, sharp-sweet,
Laughing, even when denied,
And that empyreal flame
Whence all loves came.

Love's as fresh as spring,
   Love is spring:
Bird-song hung in the air,
Cool smells in a wood,
Whispering 'Dare! Dare!'
To sap, to blood,
Telling 'Ease, safety, rest,
Are good; not best.'

Love's as hard as nails,
   Love is nails:
Blunt, thick, hammered through
The medial nerves of One
Who, having made us, knew
The thing he had done,
Seeing (with all that is)
Our cross, and His.


Gratefuls:
- being allowed to grow old with my best friend
- him playing his cavaquinho and singing Elvis' Love Me Tender with my English class
- knowing we are truly loved, every single one of us