English: Poster

English: Poster (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


Winter easing its grip reminded him of the look on a lover’s face when she told him she’d never leave him. It was sad and happy all at once. Winter tended to take many things away from him that he held dear yet the truth was the thought of endless winter was about as real as believing young love always lasts.
Sometimes it does, but no one can be quite sure. For it only takes one time, one disappointment, one expectation unfulfilled, to dampen the enthusiasm of the most eternal of optimists. Life was more a story than a journey for most people. Some stories were interesting while others were not so much. Always thinking the best was yet to come was not a tired cliché for him. He knew for him that if not the best, then better, was to come. This is not a feeling that can be learned. It is instinctual. Writing is more a journey and living is more like a story.
Not caring what others thought always was to his advantage. Getting criticized never bothered him, especially if what he was being scrutinized for was something where he felt his work was impeccable or at least quite stellar. Where do lies end and the truth begin?
I’ll always love you
Always loving someone is not the same as loving someone and being able to stay with them. We make vows—whether in business, office or matrimony and we sometimes actually try our best to live up to them. But we are human beings and try as we might, deceit is typically the resort of choice, of convenience, of excuse.
It’s cheaper to keep her
The most ridiculous notion of all. He understood this is as surely as the fact that keeping one’s shoes tied will most likely minimize the risk of tripping and falling. The high financial and emotional costs of divorce are only exceeded by those of the persons who remain in loveless marriages for the sake of avoiding divorce, confrontation and the possibility that the unknown of leaving a bad marriage is distanced only by the misery of remaining.
How did I get here?
Good question. If you can ask yourself this fairly regularly without really knowing the answer, then you are not as insecure or unconfident as someone would lead you to believe. “How did I get here” speaks to the willingness of venturing out, taking a chance, dipping one’s toes in cold, uncharted waters. It is the question pioneers ask themselves before striking out into the unknown once more. For to stay the course at all costs is simply not optimal for everyone at all times.
Scan of a Valentine greeting card dated 1909.

Scan of a Valentine greeting card dated 1909. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


You’re always running away
He might worry about that if it actually is a bad thing to remove yourself from unhealthy situations. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is a bad habit for too many people. If your choices dictate your fate, then being a victim of bad circumstances multiple times is evidence you need to think differently about how you live and what you do. Not running away when everything in a situation tells you to is failure to recognize what’s best (for your own good). Fortunately for them, real men leave because their staying ruins things not only for themselves but for the people they are involved with.
I stuck my neck out for you, don’t let me down
If you really did he wouldn’t accept your offer of assistance. Knowing under what conditions to accept help was and is important to him. The pressure of keeping an associate’s or friend’s neck connected to their head is a red flag to him when it comes to things like job interviews for instance. If you really want to help him, you’ll just offer assistance and love freely without any expectation of remuneration—exactly as he offers them. If you can’t do this then time is just being wasted.
Spring is just around the corner
Warmer temperatures spark hope which is a bittersweet word for him. Hope is the expectation that doing nothing will change something for the better. That inaction, as long as positive thoughts surround it, can lead to a good outcome. “We can always have hope,” some people say. Yes, we can, but hope unfortunately is not measurable. Some people hope more than others. It’s like wishful thinking. Can you be a person who doesn’t have hope and still be considered a good person? Perhaps, but some people try to ensure their wishful thinking and name their daughters words like “Hope.” Hope, like most intangible things, is best undertaken in moderation. Girls named Hope and boys named Sue should only be found in songs, books and movies.
Spring Means Green and HOPE has Arrived!

Spring Means Green and HOPE has Arrived! (Photo credit: cobalt123)


Tripping up the stairs
People can trip up the stairs, but in reality, they slip down them when they’re tripping up them. Think about it. You can trip up and down stairs. What about stumbling up and down stairs? Is it much different than tripping? Tripping used to mean being on hallucinogenic drugs. But it still can be used in the context of stair navigation. Stumbling and tripping fall into the same category as hoping—they are sometimes meant to be done in a happy sense, a content world of being, such as the happily hoping drunkard who trips up stairs only to stumble down them once more.
All this talk of tripping, stumbling and hoping left him thinking about love in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day–the day where no matter what a guy does, it’s always better to do something for his girl than it is to just adhere to her dangerous, trap-laden words: You don’t have to get me something.
Put a halt to all the tripping, stumbling and hoping and take action, so instead, you’ll be falling–in love. Get her something and be her valentine. Spring is just around the corner and you know you won’t find out if she’s forever unless you take a chance, put your own heart out there and try doing something that makes her smile.