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Tuesday, July 10, 2018

This is Linda's Song.  I wrote it for our 30th wedding anniversary way back in 2006 - pre-blog days.  I ran across the paper copy the other day and with her permission, am sharing it with you now to celebrate our 42nd anniversary next week.  Twelve years later, it's all still true!






This is Linda’s song.
It’s the music of my life.
It’s the theme of the orchestra in my mind.
Her song creates the harmonies in my heart.




Before her, the music of my life was just noise, a chaotic tune-up;
Instruments in full voice, but acting on their own.
No theme, no purpose, no direction…confusion.
Bits of melody made sense here and there, but still separate.





Parents, friends, school, church, sports, home;
All chimed inside my young heart with their own distinct sounds;
Sometimes muddy and unclear, sometimes coming together sweetly,
But somehow incomplete and unresolved.




There was music of all kinds everywhere,
I listened closely, searching.
No sound seemed to be for me alone.
Where was the harmony I longed for?




Then, I noticed Linda there, quietly set apart from it all.
She was someone special.  How? Why?
Maybe, she held the secret.
She said “yes” to our first date.

Then she kissed me.  Once.

Silence.



The chaos and confusion fell away.
The pure quiet told my heart a new song was about to begin.
A perfect moment of expectation,
The silence just before the first note of a new symphony…
Linda’s song.




Then it began… simple, clear, beautiful.
Intoxicating, perfect harmony in my mind and soul.
Quiet and tender, yet pounding in my veins.
What is this new sound?  How can this be true!


The music of my life now made sense,
All the separate parts woven together
Into a surging melody of purpose.
Her song erased the fear of an unknown future.


This is what it feels like to be a man,
A man in love, a man complete.
A man with a reason to live,
A man with a song in his heart.



But not only in my heart, a song that became  my heart.
This was a new composition, being written over time;
Ever growing, ever changing with a beauty and strength beyond both of us.
Resounding through time and echoing through every part of me.


In time I learned how to listen to her song,
To hear the subtle, delicate layers.
To listen from very close,
To listen from afar.


I’ve heard it in her laughter.
I‘ve heard it in her tears.
I can hear it today,
I can hear it through the years.



It’s as playful and mischievous as a ØΔ∏ on Gentle Thursday,
It has the smell of LC campus in the spring,
Tastes sweet as a grilled honey bun,
A vision in white and yellow gingham.


Sometimes it is as soft
As the moonlight on her skin,
Sometimes as powerful
As the wind over the Cliffs of Moher.


More serene than an Enya song
Drifting through a Carmel shop,
More dramatic than the curtain coming up
On Broadway’s 42nd Street.


Linda’s song has the power
To render time impotent, irrelevant.
She thrills me today as if
Our honeymoon was yesterday.


It has the strength to Defy the Gravity of discouragement,
And give our dreams the Courage to fly.
Brains enough to contain the wisdom and
Heart enough to express the love
That defines our Home  today.


Her children dance to the music,
Its beauty radiates from their eyes.
Two daughters who sing with voices of their own
Rising with new harmonies,
Reflecting the melody of Linda’s song.



Her eyes, her smile,
Her touch, her kiss:
These are the instruments of her music,
But not the source.


Her song comes from the depths of a beautiful soul:
Loving and caring, with exquisite understanding
That senses every emotion in those around her
And echoes back  joy, encouragement, and compassion.


Her song is deep in my heart.
I thank God for the ears to hear it.
I thank God for a life filled with the music of
Linda’s song.