Rarely in life, we have moments of crystal clarity when all the stars in the heavens seem to align perfectly, and we know our place within the cosmos to the point that the nagging little doubts of life vanish and contentment fills our souls.
For around 10 years, we lived near Harrisonburg, Virginia and in our fourth year of marriage, I had one such moment sitting at a stoplight across from the mall.
Ben and I had been to our favorite little Mexican restaurant that night, followed by a quick stop at BigLots for the usual odds and ends we didn't really need. We had ambled around the store for a little while, not acting our age in the toy aisle, and just generally enjoying being together.
As we pulled up to the stoplight in the late afternoon, I briefly felt the effects of the earlier Mexican lunch and passed a very small amount of gas, so small that I thought nothing of it. After four years of marriage, who does?
The sunlight slanted golden through the windshield and Ben's blond hair lit with a halo. He cast a glance in my direction and the angle of the sun was perfect to turn his blue eyes into a glowing fire that still blazes in my memory these many years later. I felt the planets align. My moment of clarity centered in this beautiful man, and my heart swelled so full of love that I actually felt a physical pain in my chest. Good God, I loved him! The sensation was so overwhelming that it needed an outlet, but words are such a poor substitute for such purity of emotion.
I looked deeply at him, trying to beam my feelings through my eyes. "You have such beautiful eyes," I began.
He turned those beautiful eyes towards me, fracturing the sunbeam into a million diamond-like sparkles and my heart lurched as I drew breath to tell him I loved him.
"You," he replied with feeling, "have a very stinky butthole." And then he cracked the window.
So passed my moment of completeness with a waft of fresh air and tears mixed in with my semi-hysterical laughter.
"Love is a many-splendored thing," Han Suyin wrote. I wonder if his wife liked Mexican, too?
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