A Musical Valentine for My Bride

It’s funny how life makes you realize what things are truly important to you, and how happenstance may or may not be involved. So, as I arose this morning, and kissed and hugged my beautiful wife of almost 22 years, the wheels in my head slowly began to turn. And as I read the Valentine’s Day card she left me (a trait of my wife’s that has always been light-years ahead of moi, btw), I realized I hadn’t bothered to tell her of a deduction I reached late last year. I have a habit of plodding, below-the-surface reckoning — something to my wife’s everlasting credit she’s put up with for a long time — and this was the latest example. Understanding and I don’t meet as often as we should, and whatever eventually breeches my awareness, I sometimes fail at sharing it. As luck would have it, as is the case so often, it was music that’s ‘getting me off the schneid‘ this morning.

I’ve come to recognize that the period of 1978 – 1988 was my own lost decade. Literally La Década Perdida. A period of time where I didn’t have much purpose or understanding. Clarity only applied to the I photos I took, but to little else. And the only thing that broke the spell, which arrived prophetically around the Ides of March of ’78, was the sight of my future bride in 1988 January. Oh, I had seen and met her before that. But for some inexplicable reason, never like that moment. So when my iPod this morning despensed Bonnie Raitt’s Not the Only One from her aptly titled album, Luck of the Draw, I knew something once again was aligning for this the luckiest of men. And like the year of our courtship, this opportunity was not to be squandered. Happy Valentine’s Day, my love.

I was in a daze, movin’ in the wrong direction
Feelin’ that I’d always be the lonely one
Then I saw your face, on the edge of my horizon
Whisperin’ that I wasn’t the only one
The lonely one

Once chance intervention, see what it can signify
The slightest misapprehension, baby
And we’d have passed each other by
When I heard your sweet voice callin’
Saw your light come shinin’ through
I couldn’t stop my heart from turning
Churnin’ out my love for you, my love to you

I was in a daze, movin’ in the wrong direction
Feelin’ that I’d always be the lonely one
Then I saw you face, on the edge of my horizon
Whisperin’ that I wasn’t the only one
The lonely one

True love or perfection
It seems like it’s overdue
Then just when you least expect it
It comes sneakin’ up on you
When I thought that I was dreaming
Felt your body close to mine
Now love takes on a different meaning
Together till the end of time

I was in a daze, movin’ in the wrong direction
Feelin’ that I’d always be the lonely one
Then I saw you face, on the edge of my horizon
Whisperin’ that I wasn’t the only one
The lonely one

I was in a daze, movin’ in the wrong direction
Feelin’ that I’d always be the lonely one
When I saw your face through the web of my confusion
Whisperin’ that I wasn’t the only one
The lonely one