Thursday, January 21, 2016

The Love Story: Part II

Day one passed into days two and three and ten and thirty so quickly. Rick and I have been together for such a short amount of time, and yet it has seemed like years. Rick is open and honest enough that it is as my father observed: "The Rick you see is the Rick you get." I never had to wonder what he thought or wonder how he felt, and he was patient enough to keep bumping into my protective walls like an overzealous Roomba until he was as certain of my thoughts and my feelings. Every so often I ask Rick how long we've been together and he sighs, "About nine or ten years now."

After our first date, Rick and I spent the next two days together. It was not roses and love songs, it was simple. It was grocery shopping, school planning, and birthday party throwing (with some healthy kissing in between). It was the most comfortable I had ever been with another human being. It was life. So ordinary. So glorious. I had done roses and love songs before, but I had never done life. 

Rick eventually went home to the White Mountains, and we began a long-distance relationship which was only ever difficult when I experienced doubts. Those doubts came when Rick was absent and I thought about our relationship in the way the world must. But when it was just Rick and I, it all made such perfect sense. He made me calm when I had a tendency to be anxious. I never was anxious about Rick, only about other trifling things such as what people would think about our hasty courtship.

When I took Rick home to meet my parents, I was driving over the hills to my small valley home while Rick followed behind in his Jeep. As I looked in the rear view mirror, I suddenly realized I was taking my husband home. This was not just some guy I thought was okay enough to meet my parents, this was the man I was going to spend my forever with. I laughed because it was mad, and then I cried because it was beautiful and wonderful and right. I could comfortably take Rick home because he was home.

In a few mere days and weeks, Rick went from being that all-American country man I thought I never wanted to the kind, honest, confident, and good man I knew I needed. He was for me, and I was for him, and that was enough and always will be.




4 comments:

  1. Gross. 😜 You kids sure are cute! I'm so happy you found what and who you need! Thanks for being so good to my little sister Rick!

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  2. My husband and I knew that we were going to get married in less than a month. It's so wonderful to know where your home is. I recognize so much of our story in yours. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. My husband and I knew that we were going to get married in less than a month. It's so wonderful to know where your home is. I recognize so much of our story in yours. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Now I can't wait for Part III and IV & V! We're so happy for you! I knew as soon as you brought him home and he was sitting on our couch, it was all over! You would marry him! It was still hard letting go, but I knew it would happen. Don't forget where we live! Come & visit us!

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