Reprise » A Musical Valentine for My Bride

* My marriage to this lovely woman will soon reach a quarter century this year.

It’s funny how life obliges you to realize the things that are truly important to you. Perhaps, even compel you to reflect on the role of happenstance in it all. Whether it matters or is involved are for brighter minds than I to ponder. 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 my wife remains light-years ahead of moi), I realized I hadn’t bothered to parcel out to her the light-bulb moment I reached awhile back.

I’ve one bad habit…more than one really, but let’s center on this. A plodding, below-the-surface reckoning with “life in all her wisdom”. My kink, as well as nemesis. Something to my spouse’s everlasting credit she’s put up with it “for a long, long time”. This being the latest example. Understanding and I don’t meet as often as we should, and whatever eventually breeches my awareness, I more often than not fail at sharing it with those I love. As luck would have it, my mother always said I’d lead a charmed life, it was music that snapped me out of it this morning.

Finally accepting and realizing that the ten-year span of 1978 through to 1987 was my own lost stretch. La Década Perdida. A period of time where I didn’t have much purpose, let alone an understanding of others. No one to blame but myself really. Clarity only applicable to the photos I snapped as a hobby, but little else. And the only thing that broke the spell I’d weaved, which arrived prophetically around the Ides of March of ’78, was the sight of my future bride as 1988 broke that January.

Although, I had seen and met her before that. Often, in fact. But for some inexplicable reason, never like that moment. The stars aligned just so to bring her into dazzling focus. So when my iPod, at its non-random best, this morning dispensed Bonnie Raitt’s Not the Only One from her aptly titled album, Luck of the Draw, I knew something once again had lined up for this most fortunate of men. In character with the year of our courtship, an opportunity not to be squandered. Like the song, at a point in time when what we have together depended upon it.

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