I Love You

by Pamela Brunell

I love your irreverence, your rebellion, like my rebellion. 
I love when you moo at the cows 
I love your adventure, your willingness to plod the earth,  
to go anywhere, to challenge yourself  
I love your metaphors,  
I love how you think in metaphor,  
goofy crazy off the wall metaphors 

I love that you rarely agree with me  
although it drives me crazy,  
you force me to look at 
problems and solutions in new ways,  
to question myself  
to see things with open eyes  
instead of a closed mind 

I love your curiosity 
I race to get to the next place 
You pause and notice— 
little stacks of stones piled meticulously  
on forest paths in little shrines 
and a preying mantis hatching her egg sack 
and a monarch butterfly on the sycamore leaf 

I love that you connect with spiders  
hanging out in giant webs  
stretched across palm leaves 
I love how you observe the family of hawks 
flying across the sky  
and the great blue heron balanced 
in a meditative stance at the side of the pond  

I love when you stop on the driveway  
to wait for the Canadian Geese  
to cross in front of you. 
I love your devotion to nature— 
your desire to pause for a moment. 
to race outside and watch the full moon  
rise up into the dark sky 

I love how you stopped on the road to Lilayi Lodge  
to save a python— 
how you stopped on Kafue Road  
to save chameleons— 
how you stopped in the Blue Ridge mountains and  
directed traffic to save a rattle snake— 
while the kids screamed, “dad we’re going to die here”

I love how you save turtles on the road
I loved that you loved the chameleon so much
we took it in the car with us
and drove six hours to Troutbeck in Zimbabwe
and kept it in the bathroom for two weeks
and took it outside each day to catch flies
and then drove all the way back to Zambia and dropped it
off in the same place just in case it had a family.

I love that you forced me to buy an African Grey Parrot
who talked to me each day
and kept me company
when you were far away
he was my feathered friend
he pooped on my shoulder
and kissed my ear.

I love how you love all kinds of fruit
I would never in a million years venture to eat I
love how you love and understand the sensuality
of the mangoes, melons, papaya, jackfruit,
mangosteins and berries.
You cut them and peel them and let the oozing
ripeness of their insides slide all over your hands.
You feel the fruit, hold it, smell it,
luxuriate in it, squeeze it, test it, relate to it.

I love that you know the stars, the constellations,
how you observe the patterns in the sky,
the movement of the sun through the
seasons I love that you ponder and
wonder about black holes and tarot cards
and whether things happen by chance or
statistics or synchronicity or probability.

I love how you sleep with a belly pillow and
now I must have a belly pillow too
I love your breathing
even though it keeps me awake
I love your hands when
they hold my hands
as we drift off to sleep at night

I love sharing every moment of 37 years with you
and I love you for giving me love
and for challenging me to love and
for empowering me to discover the meaning of
love. With All My Love always