A Little Clarification. OLE!

Last year I wrote on Valentine's Day about how I wasn't going to write about Valentine's Day. Needless to say I received many inquiries about why I had written things like:"....I think it's because this is going to be the best V-Day thus far, and my reasons for that are deeply personal and more of a "Dear Diary" subject than a "world-wide web" issue. Overall, I'm just going to say that the reason for this being the best Valentine's Day has a lot to do with being single today."You can look back in the archives if you like.

Anyways, I remember exactly what I was thinking last year at this time. I was thinking that it would be my last Valentine's Day spent as a single woman. Somewhere deep down, was a strangely moving feeling that I had a lot to look forward to. And that's why last year's V-day was so great. Not necessarily because I wanted to be single that day just over a year ago, but because I knew (and I still don't know what it means to say something so cliche as "I knew", it just feels right) that it was the end of my cupid related stress and anxiety. It was intangible and exciting.

This year, Valentine's was everything that I had yearned for years to have, and more. Flowers, Flamenco, the Flu. All of it, so good. (Except the flu....but we cant have everything work out perfectly all of the time after all).

I Screamed Like a Drunken Chinese Businessman

Humbled.

Moment 1: Jason and I decided that a great way to celebrate his 27th birthday would be on a sunset catamaran excursion on the pacific. Admist beautiful views of Diamond Head, catching glimpses of humback whales surfacing nearby, an awesome Hawaiian sunset, and unlimited drinks, was one of those rare and brief encounters that tend only to happen on vacation where everyone is stripped bare of the comfort of routine and the reliabilty of familiar surroundings. One that you get a glimpse into a life that is not your own. We shared the boat ride with a couple from Missouri who were on their first trip to the beautiful state. In fact, after a few minutes conversation (and the very obvious indicator that the husband was wearing jeans....on a catamaran....and the wife was wearing cotton floral "mom-style" capris) we realized that they hadn't been much of anywhere. They had lived 25 years of their marriage without travelling beyond 2 or 3 states from Missouri. I was humbled to be with them. Humbled to be 27 and to have the opportunity to take a spur of the moment vacation to paradise with my boyfriend. Humbled to share a brief moment and a Mai Tai with a couple who had been married almost as many years as I've been alive while they experience their first vacation to paradise.

Moment 2: Around hole 7 of the most beautiful and self designated "most challenging golf course in the world", I briefly took my eyes away from Jason's tee off to admire our surroundings. For a moment I got goosebumps realizing that millions of years ago God had designed this island knowing that this exact moment....me in my muddy white capris watching Jason aim for the fairway at the base of one of the most beautiful mountain ranges He created...would happen. God is so big. And it is so humbling to realize that He still provides for the most momentarily surprising details. Details that He knew well in advance would serve only the purpose of putting a huge smile on my face.