Long Relationships

Dear Husband,

As we get nearer and nearer to our first wedding anniversary, I keep thinking about all the obstacles and trials we have come through this far. Not many people would believe us if we told the whole truth, but that doesn’t really matter in the end, does it? What matters is that we made it through, we still love each other and we’re still together.

Knowing me, you know I’m having a hard time not giving you tour presents early. I’m always impatient like that, but I trust you and know that you’re infinitely more patient and won’t let me give them to you before Monday.

Even so, here is an early gift for you to find here on this site because I like surprising you every now and then. (No doubt you’d say I surprise you all the time. Hehe.)

I want you do know that even though I tell you I love you a lot, the feelings behind the words never change. Whether I say it once or say it a million times, I love you just the same every time and always will.

I’d given up on finding ‘the one’ until you came along. I never thought that sort of world changing, life changing love was something that could ever happen to me. But we truly rocked each others’ worlds, didn’t we? Unexpected strikes out of the blue.

As our first year as a married couple comes to an end, know that I love you more than ever. You’ll always hold a place in my heart no matter what bad times we have to face and what we go through. I’ll always love you no matter what.

Love always,

Your Wife

For your enjoyment, some love poetry.

If I could have just one wish,
I would wish to wake up everyday
to the sound of your breath on my neck,
the warmth of your lips on my cheek,
the touch of your fingers on my skin,
and the feel of your heart beating with mine…
Knowing that I could never find that feeling
with anyone other than you.

- Courtney Kuchta –

To a Woman Passing By
Jan Owen
Translated from the French of Charles Baudelaire

Around me howled the deafening street.
Tall and slim, in mourning, and with such
sad majesty, a woman passed; rich
with rings, her hand drew back the hem of her skirt.
She was lithe and light, like a statue behind her veil.
Foolishly, desperately, tense, I drank her in
-those eyes’ grey heavens where hurricanes begin,
a captivating sweetness, the pleasure that kills.
One lightning flash … then night. Fugitive beauty
whose glance suddenly wakened and lifted me,
will I only see you again in eternity?
Elsewhere, faraway, too late, never, maybe?
Where the other is going, neither of us can tell.
Ah, you whom I could have loved - you knew it well!

Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

William Shakespeare

Valentines Day is tomorrow, and I think one of the best, most heartfelt presents is a love letter.

I put this letter up today not because I have something else planned for tomorrow but to make a point. Valentines Day is a lovely reminder to celebrate how much you appreciate the ones you love, but you should never let a day pass by with your partner not absolutely sure of how much you love him/her. Take advantage of time, and though it’s hard sometimes, try to greet each day as if it’s your last with your partner.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Dear man of mine,

I love you. I know I tell you every day (sometimes it must seem like every five minutes), but every time I say it I mean the words with all of my heart.

Things haven’t excatly been easy for us. Frustrations have been the name of the game lately, but like we’ve made it through before, I know we can keep making it through. I know we can get everything we want out of life. It might take a while, but we can do it.

I want you to know that this Valentines Day is, for me, full of thoughts of everything you’ve done for me lately. I can never truly express how much it means to me that you’ve been taking care of me like you have. I’m not always the easiest person to have around, and yet you think more of me than yourself.

I notice, and I love you for it. I always will.

Come what may, love.

Love always,

Yours

I believe the sooner a couple realizes the importance of bubble bath time, than the better chances they have for making it through all the long years to come.

Not regularly enough for me to take them for granted but enough to keep me a happy wife, my husband will run me a hot bubble bath. He’ll run the water, put in the bubble bath, light candles, make sure I have towels…

And sometimes, he brings me treats like strawberries and cream or chocolates.

After reading that, you may think I’m a spoiled wife. The truth is I’m not. My husband knows I like to have alone time in the bath. I know my husband likes his alone time in his comfy chair with movies/television.

Yes, my space takes a bit more preparation, but my husband is satisfied with me bringing him a beer.

The bubble bath isn’t simply a bubble bath. What I want you the reader to see is that the bubble bath is also symbolic. Your bubble bath doesn’t have to be an actual bath.

What it represents is a sacred time spent alone in relaxation and pleasure. The space can be invaded only if the invader is bringing offerings of things to increase the pleasure and relaxation.

The bubble bath is often the only time a busy woman (or man) will get peace and (some) quiet time to read, relax, eat little treats, and/or a multitude of other things. In establishing a place of peace and aloneness for your partner, you are letting your partner know that you respect his/her need for time alone.

So give it a try. Run a bath for your partner.

Christmas has come so fast for us, it seems, and yet also at just the right pace. This past year has been so monumental for us, it’s no wonder we greet Christmas and the break that comes with it with eagerness.

Last Christmas was filled with all the awkwardness of not only our first Christmas face to face, but also the awkwardness of my first few months living with you. This year we celebrate having overcome many battles and discovered many things about each other.

This is our first Christmas as a married couple. I still remember our May wedding, especially given that I woke up this Christmas Eve to the same weather we had on our day. Melbourne is a fussy one when it comes to the weather.

We also celebrate this Christmas with joy in my successes as a book reviewer, a writer, and more. We also celebrate your second Christmas with the company you work with.

You have done so much for me over this past year that, as I look at my presents for you, I feel like they are completely inadequate in showing you how much I care for you and love you.

You’re not an easy man to buy for. Haha.

But then I look at our little tree on top of the television and our little gathering of presents for each other, and I know we have such a good thing between us. Presents and Christmas spirit be psshed because we have a good, loving relationship no matter what time of the year.

I love you now more than ever, sweet man. You bring out the best and me and make me feel like I can accomplish great things. For that, I love you utterly and completely, and I want to help make all your dreams come true.

I wish you a very happy Christmas, my love. I’m looking forward to many more.

Love,

me

Last week for weekend homework I asked you to sit down with the people you love and talk about firsts from your lives. If you tried it out, I hope it went well for you.

This week I’d like you to do something…a little romantic. Okay, a lot romantic.

Write a love letter.

Yes, I know, writing a love letter can seem awkward sometimes and a bit weird, but truly, it doesn’t have to be. And neither does it have to be a dozen pages long in your best handwriting. Type it, write it, three words, three pages… It’s all up to you, truly.

Just to show it can be done – for those of you who are a little nervous at the prospect – here is a letter from me to my husband. (Not an old one. Brand new.)

Dear B,

Your twin flame