My wife

My wife was inherently created to be a caregiver. Every day I watch her, stand beside her, as she takes on the problems of our children, friends, family, even strangers. She listens gently to their problems, steers them to the knowledge that they already knew. She doesn't judge or really even give them advice, she just listens as they talk in circles and eventually end up the place they knew they needed to be all along. I watch as my wife takes blow after blow, with a strength and dignity for which I hold unlimited respect and only a shred of comprehension. Her back stays straight, her head never bows except in prayer to the God from whom she claims her strength. Day after day, week after week, her love for others grows and expands. She brings soup to the sick, prays with the hurting, helps the lost find their way, leads the children, and supports everyone in her life. And when the day is finally over, she kneels beside the bed and gives all the stress and hurting in her own life to her Lord before she climbs into bed beside me. In those few moments before she sleeps, I hear her breathing, soft and even. In those moments, I see the woman behind the superhero. A woman who longs to be held and cared for as she holds and cares for others. A comforter who longs to be the comforted. A mother who aches with the loss of her own mother. A wife who never stops supporting her husband, but wishes she didn't need to. And in those few moments before she sleeps, I lean over her, I kiss her on the forehead and I whisper, "I love you." She smiles and relaxes into my chest – finally a woman, not a superhero. She breathes back, "I love you too," as she drifts off into her well deserved rest. As she does, I know she'll wake in the morning before I do, and scuttle downstairs and begin her daily regimen of care giving. Her constant loving care to all who cross her path. The woman will once again become the superhero that she has always been but has never recognized. It's because of that – the fact that she doesn't even realize how much she does for others – that I love her so completely. It's in the quiet moments before sleep takes over, after she's taken off her superhero cape and hung it up beside the bed, that I can see her as a woman who needs to be loved as much as she loves others. I make that my goal in life: to love my wife and dedicate myself to her as much as she dedicates herself to everyone else. Because she deserves it.