Brighten Your Day

We keep no secrets from each other. I went looking for one of our old credit cards. He has a few little hidey holes for important stuff, he's like WALL-E, so I went to his bedside table, bottom drawer, where he occasionally keeps old financial stuff.

And there it was, just staring at me. I had no idea.

Every card I've ever given him, every cutesy love letter, every sappy post-it. Stacked neatly in the back corner. Some in envelopes, some out. Over six inches high. Every card I fretted over, every page of handwritten 3AM hopes and dreams. I'm a writer, so words are important to me and they are the way I express myself when it's difficult to do so verbally. He knows this.

People always say it's so nice to see how happy we are. That we're "that couple". I feel it. It's not like we never left the honeymoon phase. We had some issues for a while, most people don't know, but we pushed through and we're both better partners because of it. I never thought I could be this happy. In a million years, I never would have dreamed that I could have this kind of loving, challenging, supportive, affectionate, sexy, silly, perfectly complimentary relationship. I feel lucky every day to have found this wonderful man and I will never, ever take it for granted.

But seeing that stack of cards, even though it may seem small to some in the grand scheme of things, just really made me happy today. I told him I loved him for the first time in a rambling valentine's day card, 7 1/2 years ago. We make a special point on every birthday, anniversary, whatever, to get the other person a nice card, write a little something.

Maybe one day he'll be looking for something and find my stash, tucked away in my bookshelf: a stack of every card he's ever given me.