The Promise

Hallo Kartoffelkumpel,

I know my last post said it would be the start of a series of posts on the interplay between being happy and being good. Well, as is our life’s wont, that very goodness is being tested by some very unhappy happenings at the moment. Among many unfortunate things, this means that the draft articles for that series are saved on my computer at home. It would be ideal for you to not have to wait too long for those but in the meantime here is something I hope you will enjoy.

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The Promise

I will never leave you come the morning,

I will hold you close all through the night.

I will shelter you through storms my darling,

I will lead you back into the light.

I will always listen with without hesitation,

When the light turns dark, yes all the while.

I will always love you without reservation,

Whether life makes me cry or make me smile.

Though hardships lay like razor wire,

None shall come between me and you.

None shall quench for you my fire.

This is what I promise you.

I will always stand tall and protect you,

For you my heart will always fight.

I will lay down my life to save you,

So rest your head sleep sweet tonight.

Though winds may change like seasons riddled,

Joy may pass and laugher too,

My heart for you remains enkindled.

This is what I promise you.

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This is what I promise you.

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These are the lyrics to a song I wrote for my wife back when we were dating, a lifetime ago. Back then my understanding of love was so focused on romance that I didn’t realize how much I wrote about love as endurance. I have written plenty things for her about sunshine and rainbows and the joyful things in life and not being able to imagine a life without her. But as I go back through them I find that I had written quite a bit about having hard times and choosing to stay.

It’s almost as if I anticipated the trials that awaited us. Sure, I expected some challenges along the way. I know of no marriage, no parenthood, no life without them. What I did not expect was to have so little control over the magnitude and nature of the suffering that was to find us, that will continue to find us.

The promise I made to my wife then holds true today. And as I read it again I see it was also a promise to the Kartoffel. I can’t keep either of them from the griefs we find ourselves in, but I can, and do, and will, choose this life with them.

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No coffee donation button today because hospital coffee is on the house (and I don’t know how to add it when typing in the app).

Instead, you can show us love by loving yourself and those around you.

Be well.

[kartoffelvater]