Yesterday was good day. It is just beautiful here in England, 80 degrees and green and lush. Spring is giving way to summer and the purpose of all that rain over winter and spring is being revealed. Summer is green in England, in the whole of the UK in fact, and with a little sunshine there are few more beautiful places on earth.
Today I rode my bike out in the Surrey countryside. I climbed Box Hill (and a few others - my legs are jello!) in the North Downs and thought of Jane Austen writing scenes of picnics on that beautiful hillside vista. It is a beautiful sight. But, let me tell you, 45 miles in the rolling hills is not like 45 miles of Katy flatland in Houston Texas. I am wiped - ready for the Red Bull gives you wings moment.
I was inspired to get back on my bike by my wife, Karen. She sent me pictures yesterday of her competing in a triathlon and I was just awestruck. Love somehow does not describe the bond I have with her. She is, as the Bible says, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She looked awesome.
We met at 16 years of age and knew then she was the one. I had done a pretty good job of ruining my life by that point. What she saw in me, I was surely a project, I do not know and I don’t think she does either. I taught her math. She was beautiful, but self conscious, not knowing who she was in the world in some ways. But I knew who she was for me. She was the one and, infatuated, it is still the same.
Sort of. Because the great beauty of love is that as we have become older and three children have come Karen is not the same. She is deeper, stronger, and greater as a human being. I married a beautiful girl and have seen her become a woman, a bible teacher, a triathlete (the ultimate mystery!), and a mother.
For Karen on Mothers Day, my thanks, my love, my deep admiration, and my life. Still you are my new found land.