Love Letters

As I was editing a post last week, I was thinking that no matter how hard I worked on a piece or how many of you might enjoy my blog once in a while, there wouldn't be anything here at all if it wasn't for Sam.  Sure, we all frequent this corner of blogland because of a common fascination with spanking......

       ....but don't you think our blogs are really 
       born out of some of the greatest love stories 
                     you have ever heard ?!

If I think about any one of the women who regularly visit my blog or whose blogs I read each week, I see one love story after another.  All different, to be sure.  But love stories just as plain as the nose on your face.  A man and a woman who have been together for many years - young love and children and careers.  But I think that

all pales when you really unwrap the essence of the bond between them.  Then what you have to hold in your hand is that kernel of truth and passion and real love.  Not a Hollywood love or a Romeo and Juliet love, but a wiser, stronger love like the mountains I can see from my kitchen window.  This is the kind of love that can grow into ttwd.  And this is the kind of love that takes my breath away when I look at Sam and he looks at me.

Several years ago, Sam and I tackled a big cleaning task together and went through a huge storage closet in our mud room.  Christmas ornaments and garden items and boxes of memorabilia.  We sorted and cleaned and reorganized.  It had been 20 years since we opened some of those dusty boxes.  We were rolling through

this project with all dispatch until we found a box that contained all our love letters to each other.  That stopped us in our tracks, and we both sat on the floor and started to read.  Good writing has a quality called "Voice," and the voices we were reading were our own.  It was us but somehow the words were new again.  Many of them ached with the feeling of young passion and longing to be back next to each other.  I remembered that gorgeous boy I fell in love with and how hard it was not to have him there with me.  I could see a girl with long brown hair glued to the phone (when phones were still glued to the wall) and waiting for his call.  We both smiled a lot that afternoon as we read.

I surely do love this quote.

Just lately several friends have sent me handwritten notes or thank- yous, and I will tell you that there is still a place for letters that are written in the hand of someone you care about.  That person held that piece of paper in his or her hand and now you are holding that piece of paper in your hand.  It becomes so much more than paper; it becomes a piece of their heart.  Something to hold and touch and cherish.  I know it sounds old-fashioned but emails just can't quite measure up to that.

So where are the love letters now?  I believe my blog has become the mailbox for my love letters to Sam.  In each post I think our love for each other still shines through and that my "Voice" is present in every word.

Recently a special blog friend pointed out that she never hears any husband-bashing in the ttwd posts she reads.  I agree, and I say we almost always hear about how wonderful and appreciated those husbands are.  It doesn't mean that Sam or I never stumble.  It simply means we pick ourselves up, and instead of silences and hurtful words, there is ttwd to help us refocus on the path we want to take.


Sam "writes" what is in his heart every day now....

• when he pushes me up against the wall for kisses that are slow and long.
• when he takes my hand wherever we go.
• when he gently puts his hand on my bottom to remind me of what's important.
• when he pats his knee to invite me to sit in his lap.
• when he pulls me into "spoon" last thing each night.
• when he makes love to me and sends me to the moon and back. 

And Sam writes his greatest love letters when he spanks me.  For this wife, that is when I hear his "I love you" most clearly.  He gives me this gift freely and uses his hand to sign his name on my bottom instead of at the bottom of the page.  And I know in my heart how much I am loved.  

                                                    Thank you, Sam
                                                     
                                                     Your Ella Ever After