One for the road.

The most important things are the hardest to say,

because words diminish them.

-Stephen King

"Hey Mike!" I called out through the open door, hoping he'd hear me downstairs in the living room. "Hey what?" I could hear him coming back up as he asked. I hugged him and said, "Please be safe out there; I don't want anything to happen to you."

"That's all you called me up here for?" He seemed pleasantly surprised. Later, I felt bad that he should be surprised.

At the risk of setting the women's movement back a few decades, let me state that most of the women I know are overly-analytical creatures. We think (we hope) he's pondering the deepest of thoughts when really, he's just thinking about cheese. Or sex. In our spare time, we're constantly going over what we said, what he said, what we did, and what we could've done. So, in the true esprit de l'escalier, it's no wonder that I'm constantly kicking myself in retrospect.

There were so many times when I could've shown more love.

In all fairness, and this might come as a surprise to those closest to me, I'm really very shy when immersed in the throes of the deepest heartfelt verbalizations. When me love a lot, me no talk good. Lacking the words to truly elucidate the depth of my emotions, I often joke when I should be serious.

To add to it, I've been taking for granted that I'll get another chance to tell those closest to me just how much they mean. This is a very bad habit to get into.

Since it's still early enough in the year to create good habits, I'm making it a point to stop whatever I'm doing long enough to send my loved ones off with a healthy dose of hugs and love. I've got plenty of that to go around, and there's nothing more important than showing love to those around me.