Some Valentine's Day Cheesiness

So, if you didn't already know, today is Valentine's Day. That means it's the one day of the year that I can be exceptionally cheesy and ridiculously romantic without anyone judging me. Except for the fact that I saw my husband for about fifteen minutes this morning before I left for work and won't see him again for another fifteen hours...so we celebrated Valentinte's Day last night instead.

I made the most delicious dinner for him and he gave me an adorable coffee cup with two little birds kissing on it. I gave him a sweet Taylor Swift card that played "Hey Stephen" when he opened it {it's his favorite T. Swift song...no really, I hear him singing it at random times throughout the day} and he gave me a card with a sexual inuendo. It's how we work.

Anyway, I wanted to dedicate today's post to my husband. I'm not, however, going to write some cheesy love letter for the entire world to see. Instead, I want to share with all of you two things that mean a lot to my husband and I. First is the poem we had read at our wedding and second are the vows that I wrote.  

  

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The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

 

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
 
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
 
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring with your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.
 
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
 
It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
 
I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.
 
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!".
 
It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
 
It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand alone in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

 

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Vows, July 23, 2010

 

I promise to encourage your compassion, because it's what drives your need to serve others, and it's what inspires me to live more compassionately too.

I promise to cherish all of your unique eccentricities, because they are what make sure that I smile every day.

I promise to not only support your dreams, but to help you reach them too, because your ambition is what motivates me to dream big too.

And lastly, I promise to love the person that you are, fully and unconditionally, because without you, I wouldn't be the person that I am, and the person that you love.

 

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Happy Valentine's Day lovelies.