Valentine’s Day isn’t a holiday Hubby and I really celebrate. In fact, it’s a little after four here and I just realized it was February the fourteenth. You’d think as a romance writer and reader I would be all about the holiday.
Hubby and I have been together nearly twenty years. In the beginning he did the whole flowers and cards and things. He bought me jewelry and took me to fancy restaurants. He did those things until I told him to stop. I don’t need the big expensive gestures. I don’t need more ridiculously expensive cards that will be read and then put in a shoebox somewhere and forgotten about. I appreciate the sentiment behind them, really I do, but to me it’s just a waste of money.
See, here’s the thing, Hubby tells me he loves in a million little ways every day. He tells me when he makes sure the tea kettle is filled up so I can just hit the button first thing in the morning when I go to make my tea. He shows me when he cooks my favorite meal or stops whatever he’s doing to come and wash my back when I’m in the shower. Those things might seem silly, but they’re his love notes to me. Things he doesn’t have to do, but does because he knows I appreciate them, or because it makes my life easier.
He does other things too. Like I hate pumping gas, always have. I don’t like the smell and I hate standing out in the elements waiting for it to fill up. When we had two cars Hubby would always check my gas gauge to make sure I had gas in case I wanted to go somewhere. If I didn’t, he’d drive my car up to the gas station and fill it up, often without even telling he he’d done it. Since I rarely leave the house I sold my car a few years ago, so that’s no longer an issue, but knowing he’d do the same today means a lot.
When I told him how much I missed having a porch with a swing like I’d had growing up, he built me a back porch and got me a swing. It’s not fancy, but it’s sturdy and something I’ve enjoyed a great deal over the years.
It’s not diamonds, big bouquets of flowers, expensive chocolates, or cards. It’s not all the things they tell you you should want.
Nope. It’s none of those things.
It’s the little things. The important things. To me, those little things mean so much more than all the rest combined.
So on this Valentine’s, I wish you all the little things.