One More Day After That

A letter to my husband

There are moments of quiet love, so soft and subtle they may be missed. A bouquet of flowers brought home with the milk. A car door opened. A look across a crowded room. A gas tank set to full. A last bite saved. An intimate kiss. You do not love me loud, in flashes of romance or declarations in the sky or displays of affection for the whole world to see. Our love is not for others to marvel at. Our love is ours.

You were my first love; I was your first promise of forever. Our love came fast, the trials came faster. Through it all, we have always held onto each other. We have known life’s first cry, in two daughters who changed it all. We have known the sharp edges of loss and the memories that we now must dust off. We have known what it is like to build something just to wreck it completely and start all over. And through it all, we have always held onto each other.

So, I will kiss you with your promise of forever. I will intertwine my fingers with yours and press our palms together, holding onto this love like a lucky clover pressed between the pages of a book. I will take every way that you love me quietly and tuck them into the pockets of my heart. For your love is not for everyone. Your love is mine.

I will write sonnets to the blue of your eyes. I will write novels to the freckles on your skin. I will write a dictionary of all the words I’ve invented just to have the right words to say: I will love you forever and always and one day more after that.

Let’s continue the conversation:

1. Do you love quietly or loudly?

2. Have you known a quiet love before?

3. What resonates most with you in this letter?

Want to read more Little Bits of Everything?

• A poem on The Edge of the Word and being in the darkness together

• A letter on grief, time, loss and Ten Years

• A note on mental health and being honest enough to say I’m Not Fine

• A favorite on Normalizing Traveling without Kids

• The most honest Start Here I can give you

• A popular short story about choosing a Second Mold for our lives