The Look of Love

Call me a hopeless romantic, and I'll agree with you. Whilst Valentine's Day can get lost in a sea of tacky cards and wilting red roses, telling someone you love them - on any day of the year - is always a good thing.  I wrote about finding your soulmate in a post entitled Vive l'Amour,' last year, and I'm more than happy to have an excuse to return to the subject.

Photo: Robert Doisneau: A Bouquet of Daffodils - 1950

My love story with English Gent began 25 years ago this week - that first lunch date a mix of butterflies and flirting, of hope and possibility - who knew a shared burrito would prove so life-changing? And over the years, I've learnt that the waiting, the knowing and the wanting don't fade, as Walt Whitman's poem 'A Glimpse' captures so well :

A glimpse through an interstice caught,

Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark’d seated in a corner,

Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand,

A long while amid the noises of coming and going, of drinking and oath and smutty jest,

There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word.

Photo: Robert Doisneau: Middle Aged Couple come to the Bals Musettes - 1950

After all these years there's really no-one else's hand I'd rather hold, and he still takes my breath away.

Photo: Robert Doisneau - The Kiss 1950

So wherever you are and whoever you are with, I hope you get to feel the love and have a very Happy Valentine's Day.

PS - I just found out that the man who was the voice of 'Mickey Mouse' actually married the voice of 'Minnie Mouse' - now that's what I call true love.