Oh Irene...what have you done?

The beginning of a heavy storm has me wanting to try something a little different...gratitude.  I think at 37 years old I have a lot to be thankful for.  Beyond just my health and standing.  Beyond just life and love.  Even though I may complain to have so little I can't help but see that I truly have been blessed more often than not.  I have lived a life that most at my age are just trying to navigate through and even though it may have been hard, I feel good to have made it through with honors.  I have two boys I am so proud of...the most beautiful of things in my life.  God's greatest gift to me of which nothing can compare.  I have friends and people that love me without interest or motive...only because they chose to know me, accepting the truth of me without guile.  I have a father that has become my friend and ally throughout this crazy journey of mine while he trudges on his own.  A triune set of mothers whose prayers for me reach the Father's ears as a constant even though I could always be a better son to them.  Yet something else struck me as the heavy rain took me down a memory lane through this digital panorama of photos...

In my life I have had the privilege of loving two women with a passion unrivaled.  Both ending differently...one sweet, one sour but both with a pure desire and a skin-tearing passion.  How many can say that?  How many can really truly feel that?  The heat of anger and lust.  The pure desire and passion for another that has you wanting to just be around them?  To be in such a thing can be heart wrenching but looking from the outside in...it is true passion.  I hear of "dates", "hook-ups" and "busting a nut" but rarely do I ever hear the pure words of passion uttered from the lips of men...or even women for that matter.  That speech is saved for poetry and song when it should be spoken in whisper from the truest of hearts.  It truly is harder as a single man to bear such a standard for intimacy.  With a wife, at least you have only one outlet for that desire.  Something more beautiful than the most expensive ring...exclusive only to her.  Yet where does it go as a single man?  My writing gets most of it now...

Thank you Irene...you have served me well.