Two days behind: Day one: Who is the one person in your life who inspires you to love?

In my defense, I'm late because my city and my state have flooded to an extent we haven't seen since the Pleistocene Era, when most of us weren't alive and there were no weathermen to tell us which way the wind blows.

We are ok, in my house.  We are now handing out water, because (who knew it?) in floods, the water system goes out and even if you have running water, you can't drink it.  Before today, you couldn't buy water, and so people from places with water have trucked it in for us.  This hasn't been easy, either, because many of the roads, including interstates, are washed out.

Infrastructure isn't sexy, but it sure does make life easier.


In truth, I might have been late anyway, because that's what I do.  And it is a hard question.

The One.  The One Person.  The One Person who inspires you to love?  Oh my.

I could pick either of my parents.  Their compassion and sense of justice and mercy is the bedrock of my life.  I could pick my brother and sister, my first friends and still my best friends.  Crazy as we can be, we love each other and eat together on a regular basis, and that's something.

I could pick my kids, because, for me, having a child opened up a whole new cistern of untapped love.  Having a second and third child reminded me that love is not divided, it multiplies.  Don't get me started about my grandchildren.  There is always enough.

There are a few people I could pick, but I think I'll pick my husband and love of my life, Bob.  When I met Bob, I liked him alright, and I think somewhere in my self-damaged heart, I loved him.  I have no idea how he looked at my bedraggled, broken self and loved me, but he did.

And in the 30 years since then, we have loved each other.  In sickness and health.  When things are great and when they really truly suck.  When it's flooding and when there hasn't been rain in six months.  On car trips and in vacation condos with 10 other people.  Alone, at Brookgreen Garden or Ray's Diner (our places).

Because of Bob, I have my own cistern of love.  I am loved and so I can give away as much love as the whole damn world needs.  It will never run out.
#blog4peace ‪#‎30DaysofLove‬