Love, A Heat Wave And A Zero Gravity Chair

British Columbia is in the grip of an unusual heat wave. In the 36 years I've lived here, we had a few years with more hot days than others, but rarely a solid 2 weeks of record breaking temps. Because of this many homes (including ours), smaller condos and even seniors' homes don't have air conditioning.  99% of the time that is fine. Then there are times like this.

Our home is perfectly fine in the morning. All the doors and windows are wide open and we are along a river so there is usually a breeze.  The house is fairly vertical which creates a chimney effect pulling the air in and up.  As the day progresses, though, the heat rises and sitting inside means turning into a ball of sweat. If you're smart, you do your cooking early in the day - something that can go in the fridge and be served room temperature or chilled.  

By noon the house has started to heat up and by 2 we're sipping ice water non-stop.  Late afternoon I start to feel really sweaty and bogged down, so I head into the bathroom and run a very tepid bath - not hot and not cold. Then I sink deep into the water with my eReader carefully in hand and spend at least 30 minutes letting the water cool me down and soak all the sweat off. When I get out, I try to just blot dry so I leave some moisture on my skin and I leave my hair a little on the wet side. The evaporating water helps keep me cooler that little bit longer.  

Supper is eaten out in our small front yard at the tiny table, but those wrought iron chairs aren't that comfortable to relax in for a long time. Eventually I end up back in the house slowly melting again. That was until last night when I told my husband that I needed to find our zero gravity recliner chairs and move one out front.  

Without my knowing it, he went in search, found one, snuck it out front, set it up for me in the shade, and hosed it off. Then he came in and announced it was all ready for me.  I was so surprised.  eReader in hand, I headed out and stayed there for over 2 hours. I was stretched out with my feet up, a breeze had kicked up that kept me perfectly comfortable and I was enjoying an engaging book.  I don't think I wandered back inside until after 9 p.m.  He never got a chair for himself, he continued to read in the hot house.

There are a lot of ways to express love.  Society seems to imply that some ways mean more than others - expensive jewelry, big trips, fancy meals in restaurants, well thought out gifts, and flowers are big on their list. If your spouse or partner isn't someone who loves doing those things, it can be easy to fall into a trap of seeing what they don't do - the traditional list someone else created.

One thing I learned over the years of being married is the importance of loving someone for who they are, exactly as they are.  When you do that, all the small things they do to show you love began to pop into your awareness.  Fill your heart with these moments and cherish them. My husband is definitely more comfortable with the understated low key expressions such as last night's and I honestly could not have felt more loved and taken care of. It was perfect.