My wife, Cynthia, deserved better than she got.  She is wonderful, caring, gentle and filled with light that on most days seems to come directly from God.  On rare occasions the source of that light may be a far different source.  I can never be complacent around her…

She says the funniest things and remembers forever.

Early in our married life I stopped along the highway driving from Albuquerque to Hobbs.  I had spotted an old car on top of a mesa as I flew over it years before. I wanted to hike up and look at the car.  I tried to convince her it would take only 30 minutes to get there and back.  She was never convinced; she just went along.  She was right…it took 3 hours.I have the memory of my new wife and this old rusted car body that I dreamed for years I would reclaim and it would be valuable.  I figured out quickly where the value was in this picture and concentrated on that.  We never did acquire the car.

She knew for sure that Sunday afternoon that I would get her into more situations than her childhood dreams had encompassed.  The storm clouds have often been near, but we have seldom capsized.

Once, I talked her into buying a small business.  It had one employee and a mean dog to keep the looters out of the business.  I was working 14 hours a day at my job.  The duty of running the new small business fell to her.  The dog considered everyone who was not the one original employee to be a looter, he sort of did not distinguish correctly when we told him Cynthia was not a looter, that she was the boss.  He did not understand boss.

When we bought an oilfield service company,  I quit my job, she quit hers.  We worked in our business together.  Often, a job in the field might need a downhole tool or some key component delivered.  These oilfield things are heavy to withstand thousands of pounds of pressure and the banging around as they are run in the well.  I would ask her to find them, load them up and bring them to me.  She would.

I understand numbers really well.  Cynthia’s job was the accounting.  She organized financial reports into formats where they read like a novel;  the entire financial story played out as one flipped thru the pages because she could interpret my requests and provide information that could be used to understand everything going on in the business.  If she did not get a good bargain in our relationship, I made up for it.  I got a tremendous bargain.

Dad instilled in me the value of getting up early.  I still do.  Through my married life I awaken almost every day and spend a few minutes looking at my lovely bride sleeping next to me.  I listen to her strong and regular breathing; it is the sound of life. At that moment, I experience the joy of commitment.  I know the sharing of pain and success, of failure and renewal.  I know the peace of shared values and shared faith.

Sometimes I lie there quietly watching her sleep, not moving or stirring but the intensity of my gaze will wake her.  She never complains about her sleep being interrupted.

Many of my efforts in life have had mediocre outcomes, some a little better, some a little worse.  But when I married Cynthia I married above my head. 

I have done well at understanding and appreciating the blessing she is in my life.

On this Mother’s Day I will be with my Mother and the Mother of my daughter.  Both are what family is all about.  Both are blessings.