Early in our marriage, I made a joke about how much I love days that I can sleep in without an alarm. I NEVER sleep until 11:00 a.m. anymore. My internal clock wakes me up about 7:00 a.m.
One morning, Mike wanted to spend time with me so he rolled over and gently woke me up. I wasn’t exactly thrilled at the alarm.
“Michael, do you love your wife?”
“Yes, that’s why I want to hang out with you.”
“If you love her, let her sleep.”
Instead, he steamrolled me until I got out of bed and made waffles. Ahh, marriage.
We moved into a Duplex this summer.
The only “downside” to our new house is yard work. You never realize how much time you aren’t spending mowing the lawn until all of a sudden you have a giant backyard.
We joked about yard work and who was going to do what. Naturally I pulled out my “that’s why I got married” schtick. You know, that’s why I got married – so I didn’t have to mow the lawn. Joking aside, though, I told him I would help.
I did help, too.
I hired a guy. ;o)
The lawn was so long, the guy had to go over it four times just to get the scraps to lie down. I was thankful I paid him beforehand because my price should have doubled.
Two weeks passed, and I (cough, Mike) didn’t want to spend another $40 for a stranger to do what he could do, so, he borrowed our friend’s lawnmower. He quickly realized two weeks was entirely too long to go between mowing. Going over it once with a push mower took him more than an hour.
And the yard still looked like a jungle.
He came in because the sun was going to bed. I greeted him with a large glass of ice water and told him I would go over it a second time the next night when the heat of the day was gone. He grabbed me in a sweaty hug and said, “Thank you!”
I don’t remember what we did that night. It clearly wasn’t eventful. It was probably a typical boring night of cooking food and watching Netflix.
Did I say boring? I’m sorry. I meant awesome.
I do remember staying up extremely late. When we went to bed, we found something utterly terrifying in our room. That’s another story. I vaguely remember finally going to sleep after a peaceful day.
What I do remember, though, is waking up to the sound of a lawn mower at 11 a.m. I stumbled out of bed, waltzed downstairs, and found Mike putting the mower back in the garage, sweaty as a pig on bacon day.
“You mowed the lawn.”
“Yes I did.”
“Why? I told you I would do it this evening.”
“You were sleeping.”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t have been tonight when I mowed the lawn.”
“I know. But, you looked so peaceful, and I love you. So I wanted to let you sleep.”
Sometimes, love is the little things you do – bringing home unexpected flowers, sending a silly text in the middle of the day, or mowing the lawn so your wife who hates when nature is all over her doesn’t have to. Then, there are times when not waking me up and letting me live in dreamland for one more hour is the most romantic gesture on the earth.
Because, if you love her, let her sleep.