Seasons of Love, a Post for Valentine’s Day.

by | Feb 12, 2017 | family, life, Philippines, seasons | 22 comments

 

Love, giddy and new.
An unknown future
Unquestioned.

Vows, veil, and a bow tie.
Leaving the church
As husband and wife.

A trio of love
In springtime.

 

In sunshine and shadow,
Autumn’s child
Sleeps on Daddy’s chest.

The family complete.
A new season begins
In the Philippines.

Work and travel.

 

 

Parties and dances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the children leave,
Moving on
Together.

 

On Valentines Day we celebrate love as it is at this moment in time. But love has a history. It has ups and downs and–as I highlighted in the pictures above–it has seasons.

Today I want to mention a season of love we seldom mention. It’s that time after one partner is gone. Widows and widowers may not send or receive flowers on Valentines Day, but I believe the day still has meaning for anyone who has loved.

So happy Valentine’s Day to all.

22 Comments

  1. mommermom

    Beautiful, Nicki ❤❤❤❤

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      Thank you for all the hearts.

      Reply
  2. Claremary P. Sweeney

    Nicki, Your husband sounds like the most amazing man – a man who kisses the pictures of the ones he loves. Beautiful!

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      Yes, my husband was indeed amazing in many ways. Thank you, Claremary, I’m glad you stopped by.

      Reply
  3. Marta

    Lovely tribute. The pictures are fantastic and I love seeing the changes in your family from one pic to the next.

    Happy Valentine’s day, Nicki!

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      Happy Valentine’s Day, Marta. Many of those old photos have faded. Still, it’s interesting how much better the simple pictures we take with our cell phones are.

      Reply
  4. Mabel Kwong

    Lovely post with you and Eugene and the family in it. Agree with you that love lasts a lifetime and even after that person has walked out of your life. It certainly isn’t smooth sailing as each of us will experience different things in our lives. Even if we share a lot of our lives together, we are individuals to an extent. Despite your differences and background, good to see that you and Eugene made the love between the two of you work 🙂

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      Thank you, Mabel. You mentioned two essential parts of marriage: sharing your lives and maintaining one’s individuality. The balance is something each couple has to work out. Too far in either direction can be a problem.

      Reply
  5. nrhatch

    Wonderful post for Valentines everywhere!

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      Thank you, Nancy, and happy Valentines Day.

      Reply
  6. Traveller at heart

    I agree with Derrick. Such lovely post. It’s a joy to read a good piece of writing.

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it. If you can believe it, the hardest thing about putting this together was writing something that was (kind of) poetic on WordPress. It wanted to make a new paragraph each time I hit “enter.” That’s why I typed it up as photo captions. I still have a lot to learn about WordPress.

      Reply
  7. autumnashbough

    Lovely Valentine album. I’m glad your daughter sent you some flowers, too.

    I have nosy questions, but you can ignore them.

    Do you miss the days of children and paper lace Valentines most? Or the youthful romance? Or just having someone to share in your joy at how your children turned out?

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      I’m a big fan of chocolates and flowers. I don’t know how much my kids enjoyed making lacy valentines, but I loved it when I was a kid. Making something beautiful and then giving it away is a special kind of pleasure. Most of all, I miss having a partner to share everything with. Our children are an old story by now (although it’s a shame that he missed T’s graduation from law school). Now the grandchildren are where the action is. I love our grandchildren, but Eugene was more extreme in his delight. Every morning he used to kiss their photos on our fridge. This year, many years later, our granddaughter will be graduating from Princeton with a degree in Civil Engineering. Too bad he can’t see that.

      Reply
      • autumnashbough

        I am sniffling over the kissing of the grandchildren’s photos. That is beyond touching.

        Reply
        • Nicki Chen

          He had a sentimental bent. He also cried in movies. Joy-Luck Club was a real tear jerker for him, and when Don Quixote sang To Dream the Impossible Dream in the musical, he sat there in his seat quietly sobbing.

          Reply
  8. Kate Crimmins

    After my Dad died, I always made sure that my mother had something to celebrate for Valentine’s Day. It can be a lonely time for partners left behind. I love the collection of pictures. Sometimes I look back and wonder where the time went.

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      I’m lucky that my daughters are as thoughtful as you were with your mother.

      Time, time. It just keeps rolling along. And yet, everything we’ve experienced seems almost as real as the moments we’re living in now.

      (By the way, the first photo in this post was the one I mentioned in your blog last week. It really is kind of silly.)

      Reply
  9. Jill Weatherholt

    What a beautiful tribute to you and your husband’s love story, Nicki.
    1 Corinthians 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
    Happy Valentine’s Day to you!

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      Happy Valentine’s Day, Jill. It’s good to receive a comment this week from an author who’s an expert on love stories.

      Reply

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  1. 2017 Blogs by Western Women Who Love Chinese Men • Zhi Chinese - […] blog has become a repository for many of the real-life stories that inspire her novels, including this post that chronicles…
  2. 2017 Blogs by Western Women Who Love Chinese Men | Speaking of China - […] blog has become a repository for many of the real-life stories that inspire her novels, including this post that chronicles…

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