Love On the Range… Here’s to Us!

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you. Young or old, with pets or people, let’s make it a day of love.

 

I have a soft spot for all the ol’ married folks. You know, the wrinkly ones who annoy each other and still know how to share a laugh. From riding over rough spots to skating down slippery slopes, they get up every morning and mend fences.

 

‘Way, ‘Way Back, Many Centuries Ago…

Mike and I, shown above, are no exception.  While we knew of each other from childhood, as our families showed ponies for many years, we didn’t actually meet until I was in my last year of high school.  Mike was a division ahead of me at the shows – a very mature youth in the 14-18s – and he was mounted on a beautiful palomino called Cimarron.

 

I, squarely-built and freckle-faced, was chugging along on my little Welsh Pony, Peter, with the Under 12 kids.  To the unitiated, these two groups are far-flung galaxies and we’d never actually spoken a word.  My only real connection to Mike was that his younger brother and I were in the same equitation division at the shows.

 

Fast-forward five years to one sunny day in the park in town, where I was having lunch on a picnic bench by the deserted baseball diamond.  I’d just fetched the mail.

 

There was a parcel.  With bated breath, I opened it, a picture from a recent horse show and I was thrilled.  At the time, my heart-throb horse was a huge Thoroughbred gelding called Eclipse.  I saw nothing but beauty in this fellow and as he’d just won a championship in a big hack division, I was certain that his worth was plain for all to see.  But I was wrong.

Suddenly, a shadow fell across the image.  I looked up and it was Mike McLean.  “That horse has the hugest head I’ve ever seen!” were the first words he said to me and of course, I was quick to anger.  I don’t even remember my reply.

 

Thank goodness for second chances.  Eventually, Mike would ask me for a date, albeit to prove only to his younger brother that I would be safe enough to ask to the upcoming Christmas dance.  I must not have been, as he kept me to train on, himself.

 

Gotta Love Happy Endings…

Our love blossomed, despite its seeds being sewn on such rocky ground.  We would end up marrying when I was nineteen and Mike, a grizzled twenty-three.   Much as I can look back on those early years and the subsequent arrival of three little ones to our household, I don’t know if I’d want to go back in time, even if I could.

 

We had a lot of growing up to do.  There are many ups and downs when two lives intersect but as Mike said to me not long ago, “If I had to grow old and grumpy with anybody, I’d still want it to be with you.”

 

If that’s not love, then what is?

 

By the way, I may as well admit it. I’m trying to build my email list to offer books and get help with reading chapters and reviews in the future. You are my tribe! Rather than fill your face with pop-ups on the blog page, please, I’d be so grateful if you’d trust me with your email and subscribe with the red button. Thank you!