I doubled back to a place I had been before.
The photos didn’t turn out great, but the images in my mind are clear.
As I climbed over the wet rocks, feeling for stable footing and listening to the rush of the freezing water, the reality of our situation came into focus.
When I finished, I didn’t have any more answers,
But I had learned something important about myself.
I really do love her, almost more than a heart can bear.
True, I get frustrated with her at times, but she is the only one who has always been there for me through thick and thin.
I love my friends, but they have their own lives.
I love Sunshine and it’s great to have a muse, but Sunshine can’t always be there when I need…and what does Sunshine know of war?
My Lady is a pacifist to her core, yet she is as much a warrior as me.
She watched me enter the fray time and again, stood firm as soldiers’ wives do.
And fought through two difficult pregnancies alone while I battled the enemies of an ungrateful state.
She supported me as I railed against a corrupt system that bound our hands and sent unprepared troops to their doom,
And she listened to me brood about ignorant civilians after I retired and clumsily transitioned to so-called normal life.
She waited again as I maneuvered through a jet set business world that only abused me,
And when my eyes wandered in the glitz, she let me know in no uncertain terms she still wanted me for herself.
She hardly missed a beat when I went through yet another transition, leaving a bad company to make it on my own,
And seemed relieved, even proud, to see me stay true to myself.
Although she frets about getting older, she is one of the few women I’ve ever met who gets better looking with age,
And her heart gets only more beautiful.
It happens sometimes, lately more and more, that I look at her or simply think of her,
And wonder what I ever possibly could have done to deserve such a fine Lady and partner.
She is amazing and I love her, beyond that there simply are no words.
