Romance is a perennial, not an annual by Peggy Jaeger

This month's topic is Romance in Bloom. A cute theme since we are in the merry month of May when most of our country has flowers in bloom, or at least is starting to. Thankfully, Covid hasn't spread to plants.

 The months of April to June - typically what we refer to as Springtime - are when gardeners begin cultivating and planting the crops/flowers they want to grow. It's a time of birth and, in some cases, renewal, where we see perennial flowers come back from dormancy and hibernation. If you know anything about gardening, you recognize that annuals are plants or crops you plant once a year, they grow, and then they die. If you want to see them again next year, you have to plant them again next year. Perennials are flowers that come back year after year - if you take care of them, that is. Nothing grows from neglect.

I tend to think romance and love are perennials.

Let me 'esplain.

People celebrate the "date" something happened in varying ways. Wedding anniversaries come around once a year. The date is fixed and there are some that are 'celebrated' more than others, such as years 1, 5, 10, 25...you get the picture. Once per year you make a big fuss over the date you got hitched. I got married on December 26, 1987, the day after Christmas ( also another day we celebrate once a year)

Some celebrate the day they had their first date. For me it was October 27,1993. I'll never forget the date because it was close to Halloween ( another perennial event).

Engagements are another date people tend to remember and celebrate - or at least think of. I got engaged on New Year's Eve 1996. ( Again, another date we celebrate once a year - see a pattern here yet?)

So, why do I see romance as  perennial?

Easy.

Here's the Webster's definition of perennial: lasting or existing for a long or apparently infinite time; enduring or continually recurring. 

Doesn't that sound like the kind of love and romance you want in your life? Or are lucky enough to have? Lasting for infinity. Enduring. Recurring.

Sounds good to me, no?

I received some very sound advice from an elderly patient who happened to be a florist, long ago right before I got married. He told me that the secret to staying happy in marriage for eternity ( he'd been married 60+ years) was to do  3 things:  weed out the little problems before they overgrew and took over,  always talk to one another ( he believed in talking and singing to his flowers) and cultivate the relationship daily by always remembering that love was a living force and needed to be cared for, otherwise it would wither and die.

Sound advice that I took to heart. And because of it, my marriage has lasted 33 years. If that's not the definition of perennial....

And speaking of love, my newest book released last week. VANILLA WITH A TWIST is a sweet romance about a small town, single parent,  the choices she's made in her life, and an engineer at a crossroads in his who walks into her ice cream parlor one summer day and changes her life - and his - forever.

And don't forget to enter our monthly giveaway here: GEMS IN BLOOM



Now, go care for and cultivate your relationships!

Until next month, lovely readers ~ Peg