Loving Richard

Loving Richard is a natural kind of thing, like breathing air.  I just know that I do, even when he's driving me crazy.

I'll always remember our first date, eating skinny fried chicken legs, spending the evening sitting cross legged on the floor, talking and listening to music.

He was (and remains) the coolest, most intellectual and spiritual man I've ever known.  He blew my mind and opened my heart that first night.  When he looks into my eyes everything else in the world fades away.  There was nothing but Richard on my mind and heart during those first months of bliss.   It was such an intense and overwhelming experience that when summer ended I was only dimly aware that time had passed, and I realized that I would need to begin talking to my family about the new man in my life.

Over time, each one of my family members came to love him too.

You see, it's natural to love someone who cares about others.  Who cares about little things that matter.

The world began to open up for me from that time of our memorable first meeting, when he saw me in a parking lot picking up trash for a living, and he heard a voice that said "there goes your wife."

The voice was right.  I didn't know that while I was picking up cigarette butts and fast food wrappers, my future husband was sitting in an old blue Mustang, getting ready to go to work.  He heard the voice while I walked in front of his car, carrying a blue plastic bucket and wearing a ratty old baseball hat.

How many footsteps did it take to get to Richard?  I know that each one of those steps seemed like random drifting, but were actually planned by someone who can see my life from a higher perspective.

I'm so glad I didn't doubt the plan.

He's a free spirit and so full of life.  It's still kind of like a dream to me that we get to share life together.

If anyone needs proof that I'm in love with Richard, this is a picture of me following him up Brown Mountain:

 IN THE DARK.  WHERE BEARS LIVE.

WITH A SMILE.