Love Language Fix

So, I have always thought that I have ever mercurial Love Languages. They shift depending on my mood, who I'm with and definitely on my situation in life, at the time.

Sometimes I'm a Words of Affirmation kind of girl. Mark Twain once said “I can live for two months on a good compliment". I can still remember one that I received about 3 years ago, where a good friend sat me down and complimented me on having a servant's heart. That has stuck with me for years, and means just as much to me now as it did then.

Other times I relish Acts of Service. All I really want for my birthday this year is for someone to just take my car while I'm at work, wash it, vaccuum it out really good, and return it smelling like anything other than bread crumbs and coffee. Seriously, as I was driving home from dinner this evening, I kept thinking what a blessing that would be to me.

Most of the time, though, Quality Time is pretty high on my list with Gifts and Phyiscal Touch at the very bottom, where they tend to stay. There are very few people I feel comfortable letting touch me for an extended amount of time. Trust and comfort level play a huge factor into that, I'm sure. Even so, anyone who knows me well, knows that when I'm ready, I'll let you know, through touch, that it's ok to touch me. But till then much patience is needed, if you happen to show love through touch (and believe me, I just happen to have more than a few friends who do).

But regarding Love Languages, today I scored. I think I may have received all 5, in just one evening with a friend.

I arrived at my friend's house, and immediately plopped, face down, on her sofa. It was a long day at the bakery, with a lot of heavy lifting, and my body aches from head to toe. Most days, I just don't even realize this - Soreness is normalcy now for my body. I feel so very comfortable with this person, that the sight of me walking in the door and beelining for the sofa, where I buried my face into the cushions was probably no surprise.

Then came the blessings - at first, in the form of a backrub. And what a great backrub it was. All the knots were found, and with the patience to actually look for them, instead of performing the usual perfunctory shoulder and neck rub. They were worked out with strong hands - none of this pansy gentle touch stuff! I could've passed out at that point.

I would've too, if she didn't remind me that I came over to borrow books. I'm positively book hungry these days! Book famished. Book starved. After months of reading for LDI, and wishing I could just read one leisure book instead of Grudem, Fee & Stuart or Carson-Moo all the time, I am now at a point where I can dive back into reading for pleasure. And what a pleasure it has been. In one week's time I have read two books, Water For Elephants, and The Twentieth Wife. But now I'm out of books to read here at home, and with no time to get to the library during the day, I am dying to get my hands on some new material.

So, in a sweet gesture of friendship, not only did my friend let me borrow three books, but she gave me one too. Such a highly appreciated gift!

Then we walked, not drove, into Dinkytown for dinner. The stroll on this beautiful summer's night, and the conversation we shared on the way there and over dinner (the best - Fish & Chips & a cold, tall mug of Newcastle) met all my Quality Time requirements. It's nice to actually spend time with someone - talking, sharing, and just enjoying a walk together. To me, that's time well spent.

Speaking of walks, and Quality Time too for that matter, yesterday I had the great joy of having my new favorite thing in the whole wide world - family time. As someone who's biological family time usually involves watching one or more relatives consume massive amounts of alcohol, act like complete lunatics, and pick obnoxious, sometimes violent screaming fights with one another, family time with the Johnsons is postivively idealistic. We're talking 1950's, wholesome, Leave It To Beaver, are they for real, Quality Time. I love it!!! I could not ask for more than the time we share together, and it brings me such joy that I am beginning to think they think I'm on some sort of opiate whenever I'm around them. I'm not, just filled to overflowing with love for them, and from them. :-)

So, for some family time (where Josiah proceeded to comment that he thought we didn't have enough family along on this outing), we went to Centennial Lakes, as the massive amount of following pictures can attest. Of course, my camera battery died half way through the day, so I didn't get any pictures of the "peddleboat" experience that consisted of Jenny, Michelle & Ana on one boat, and Peggy, Josiah, Nana and myself on another. At one point, Josiah decided he wanted to "peddle", so Peggy scooted her legs aside and he "peddled". Pretty much, I peddled, but he thought he was doing all the work on the other side of the boat. I couldn't understand why it was such a workout till I realized that Peggy was not peddling with him at all, and I was lugging around our three & a half bodies around the lake. It was the best time!! Poor Nana, she had to sit facing backwards the whole time, and when the lame-o rudder got us stuck in an Austin Powers style 11-point turn under the bridge, I thought she was going to turn around and slap me. Not that Nana, with her beautiful skin and calm demeanor would bitch slap anybody. But she may have come close with me.

But I digress - back to tonight's lovely evening.

So, yeah, in the course of one night, I had Quality Time, Words of Affirmation (as we talked and shared over dinner and she set me straight on my thoughts of leaving Hope), Gifts (the books), and Physical Touch (I think I could actually get used to the backrub thing, I kind of like those!). Was there an Act of Service somewhere in there? I can't say, really the whole night seemed to serve and bless me, so I guess, yeah. All in all, I'm feeling pretty loved!