Mood:
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The card Michael gave to me was addressed, "Beloved". I can't be quite as mushy so I addressed my valentine card to "Mike". Both cards said similar things although Mike's was longer and far more sentimental. I am very lucky that I have married a man who wears his heart on his sleeve. My heart is more hidden. Along with the card came a package of eight large strawberries dipped in chocolate. I have never eatten a strawberry dipped in chocolate before. The crunch of the coating (the chocolate was hard from being refridgerated) and the cold mush of the strawberry inside is a very strange combination. It was a bit painful eatting the strawberries because my teeth on one side are sensitive to hot and cold and the gums around the teeth on the other side had been burned by eating a hot cheese sandwich. They looked beautiful, all had a long stem attached and green leaves. The dark chocolate had been drizzled with swirls of white chocolate. I bought Mike two bags of his favorite candy but now that I think about it I wish I had bought a traditional red valentine box of chocolates for him, it would have been more romantic.
I get taken care of so well that there is the danger of becoming lazy. Mike cooks me dinner every night. Last night he served it to me in bed. For the last month he has been doing the dishes as well. He never ever complains. I think I married a caretaker. Sometimes I think about what would happen to me if Mike died. I would be lost. It isn't just what he does for me, it is the spirit of the fact, that I am being nurtured by someone who loves me. The loss of his nurturing would turn the world into a very cold, hard place to live. I could do my own dishes and cook my own meals. I've lived alone before. What I've come to be dependent on is a man who loves me. That love is manifested in all sorts of ways, caring comforting words, companionship, and sex. But put these things together and you have the one fact that you are not alone. In my marriage I never feel alone. If Mike died I would feel horribly alone.
Right before I go to sleep is a strange time for me and some nights I get feeling waves of fear. I tell Mike, "I am afraid" and snuggle close and clutch him. Last time I did this Mike told me that the worst thing that could happen is that I die, and death in his eyes is not an ending. He believes that you die and become part of Gaea, the Mother Earth Goddess. The afterlife is a union with a much greater power that is big and beautiful and peaceful. It is something that he is certain of, a true believer. It is hard to remember my fear now, this morning, because I only feel it late at night. It could be because I an tired and vulnerable after a long day or it could be because my medication is wearing thin and it is too soon to feel the affects of my evening dose taken with dinner. All the things I fear, and it is hard to assign objects to this vague feeling, are listed below.
1. My teeth going bad. I have expensive caps on my front teeth. The teeth under these caps have been whittled down to tiny pieces of bone. I fear that we won't be able to afford future dental work and I will have to have my teeth pulled and wear false dentures. Right now a back tooth is rotten and I have to find a dentist and make an appointment. This task weighs on my mind every day. I am afraid to go to the dentist.
2. That I will accomplish nothing exceptional during my lifetime. I will be a part-time artist and part-time writer and never have a steady career as one or the other. I will spend years writing my book but after all that effort it won't be good enough to be published. I will live my entire life never knowing what it feels like to make money and to be recognized as doing something good.
3. The illness has reduced me to something less than a half person. I am a quarter person, a fifth or sixth of a person and no matter how hard I try I cannot compete any artistic field against people who have gone to school for their craft or who can work for hours upon hours every day. My little efforts can never achieve greatness because greatness comes only after long hours of work. I can do my bit every day and hope that the bits add up to something important but perhaps this is not the way it works.
4. I will lose Michael and in the process of going mad from grief all my creativity will dry up.