By JANET HART LEONARD
From the Hart
Never get so caught up in the pursuit of tomorrow’s big event that you miss out on the sweet moments of today.
It’s Saturday morning. I am grabbing at thoughts for this week’s column. I gather my thoughts all week but they never seem to settle until Friday night or Saturday morning. I should have several written and stored in a desperation file, but oh no, not I.
After a couple of sips of my Highlander Grogg coffee, I think about the sweetness of our Friday evening. Simple sweetness.
Chuck watches baseball. The World Series is coming up, soon, like this month, I think. I love sports but I know something really big starts tonight … HALLMARK CHRISTMAS MOVIES!
I walk into the bedroom and tap on the remote, 67, the Hallmark Channel.
My heart is happy.
I walk past Chuck and on to the kitchen to make me some hot Yogi Bedtime Tea with a bit of honey. I smile as I glance at him so intrigued with somebody not catching a catchable ball.
“Honey, watch this. What are you watching? You can watch whatever in here.” He is so thoughtful and considerate.
“Chuck, I am just fine in the bedroom with my hot tea and my fluffy blanket tucked over me.” He again asks what I was watching.
I smile a bit sheepishly. He knows that smile. It’s my Hallmark Movie smile.
My husband knows my love of schmaltzy Christmas movies. He says, “And so it begins. Have they kissed yet?”
Seriously, a Friday night, staying at home, in my jammies with a romantic, feel-good movie that I know will end with a happily ever after … well, it’s just the best.
Those are the moments where the good life lives.
If I get so preoccupied with making plans, going out, and looking beyond today, what am I missing?
The joy of simple moments.
I hear the groan when Chuck’s team gets an unfair call. Forty years of umpiring does tend to suggest that he knows what the call should have been. I make him a cup of tea. The chamomile should reduce his stress.
I know that our love story is better than the story in any movie. It’s the real thing. Lovingly schmaltzy.
The kindness, as well as love, is real in how we treat each other.
A bit later he walks into the bedroom with rice bags he has heated, knowing my feet will be cold.
I waited a long time for these moments. So much joy in the simple.
I don’t want to ever look beyond the moments right before me as those are the ones I will remember as we live our own … happily ever after. Oh, Hallmark, you can’t hold a candle to the real life love we share.