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happy-valentines-day-2024

💘 Happy Valentine’s Day 2024 💝

Today is 💘 Valentine’s Day 💝 and what better day to say, yet again, how enticingly attractive, infinitely joyous, brilliantly mirthful and unceasingly loving my wonderful wife is.

💞 She 🤍 Said 💙 Yes 💋

Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another. ~Thomas Merton

Stated another way, life had little meaning before I finally met Kelly.

Only finding that very special someone in my life opened opportunities that I could never imagine.

I’m blessed to share time and space with a genuinely splendid person who has given me love, laughter, peace, joy and earth-shaking woo.

As you might expect, this has led to children. What a miracle to share the privilege of bringing such amazing people into this world and helping them to grow into the astounding adults they are today.

Things I could never imagine on my own became amazing parts of the mosaic of my half-century, thus far.

Why? Mostly because I met Kelly. I got to know her. She said yes and we’ve been living happily ever after.

✝️ St. Valentine ❣️

A Brief History of Saint Valentine

So, as with many things at the end of the Roman Empire or beginning of the Dark Ages, Saint Valentine could be one or none of a number of documented individuals.

Oh well, who cares? There’s no point crying over spilled centuries. We’ve got a pseudo-holiday with romantic overtones.

Some will tell you it’s all invented by the greeting card companies and florists. Maybe so.

But so what? It’s fun and it’s a good excuse for me to 💋💋💋 my wife just because she’s there.

Certainly nothing wrong with that… 😉
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✍🏻 When You Are In Love 💕

You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or, rather, you can if you will be ruthless enough about it. But the best writing is certainly when you are in love. ~Ernest Hemingway

Yes, I write best when I’m able to be “alone” and uninterrupted, but not truly alone. Having my wife puttering around being herself is exactly the kind of white noise I need to really settle in and get writing.

Without my three-odd decades with Kelly, I wouldn’t have the breadth of exposure to other points of view or stages of human development that I have today.

Seeing my kids grow up and go through various types of friendships, acquaintances, frienemyships and outright enmities has provided a fascinating character study.

The people my wife and I know through our jobs, church, the kids’ activities and around the neighborhood have exposed me to different types of personalities than I’d ever have encountered on my own.

Having a family is a blessing in and of itself. It is doubly so for a writer.

Being exposed to a variety of people in real life can be a mixed bag interpersonally. Most people are personable. Some are louder than others. Some are abrasive or pushy.

Variety is the spice of life, as they say. It also helps to spice up your prose. Getting to know different kinds of people helps to add nuance to your storytelling.

Without a wife and kids, I would probably not know anybody who didn’t work the same job as me or who wasn’t a character on TV.

I’m not gregarious. I’m not one for going out. Left to my own devices, I would not have access to the kind of real, everyday people who make a book come to life.

So, along with all the blessings of being married to Kelly that I’ve already mentioned, there’s the extra-special benefit of her kind encouragement.

Something I’ve heard on AuthorTube is that many burgeoning writers experience friction with their significant others. Some spouses actively discourage these would-be authors from pursuing their passion.

That’s awful. I couldn’t imagine that. I’m genuinely blessed to have my other half’s encouragement and consideration.

For this and for so many other wonderful things, I truly appreciate all that Kelly does and is. As I’ve said before and will say again and again:

💙 Awesome Wife | Awesome Life 🤍

Hemingway’s Four Amazing Rules for Writing