Did anybody ever carve your initials plus other initials in a heart on a tree? Or perhaps you did the carving. Maybe that’s an old fashioned way of being romantic that has gone by the wayside as maybe it should for the health of our trees. 
Mother Nature carved the heart in this tree. I spotted it a few years ago at the edge of the road in front of a neighbor’s house and took a picture. I kept thinking the neighbor should carve some initials in it, but instead a year or so ago, he cut the tree down. Romance is so hard to orchestrate. LOL. I did have Michael, my deputy sheriff character in my Hidden Springs Mysteries, wonder in the upcoming book, Murder Is No Accident, if he had ever carved a heart with his and Alex’s (the girl he’s always loved) initials in a tree. He can’t remember since he had a traumatic head injury as a fifteen-year-old and lost some memories. You’ll have to read the story to see if he asks Alex who would remember.
My book celebration giveaway is still going on. You can check out the prizes, a beautiful Gaither Homecoming Bible and a sterling silver mobius necklace along with one of my books, on my News & Events Page. Easy to enter. Just leave a comment here or send me an e-mail from my contact page. For fun, I asked readers, if they wanted to, to share a first romance story.
K. strolled down memory lane and came up with a very first romance.
My first love? Hmmm…. It was when I was just 5 years old. We lived overseas and the lady who helped Mother was from that culture. She brought her 5 year-old son with her. The two of us didn’t know each other’s language but per the parents’ stories, we were inseparable when his mother brought him over. Communication of ‘love’ rarely requires words.
I suppose she’s right. When you like someone you find a way to communicate.
Then Helen shares the kind of story I was sort of expecting to see.
Catch and Kiss
Fourth grade recess consisted of girls and boys running around the play ground. The favorite game was boys chasing girls and if caught, a peck on the cheek sent flurries of girly giggles and bravado boys sticking out their chests.
“Who do you want to catch you?” Linda asked.
“Either BoBo Lee or Billy Lewis; how ’bout you?”
“Randy”, she said, smiling.
Billy attended our church and was super cute, blonde, like me, and shy. BoBo liked his lunch and anybody else’s. He wasn’t as swift of foot as Billy. Tomboy that I prided myself on being, I didn’t slow down to be caught. But captured I was and kissed on the cheek by …Billy. I remember it to this day and wonder where and who Billy is kissing today. School girl crushes crinkle my wrinkles at my age as I remember catching and kissing.
Thanks for your story, Helen. Brought a smile to crinkle my wrinkles too. I don’t remember any boys chasing me down to give me a kiss in fourth grade, but I do remember passing those notes that so and so liked so and so. We were all little matchmakers in my school. I settled for the easy path and had the same boyfriend for six years. It was “Ann likes Ben” and “Ben likes Ann.” Then cruelly when I was in 6th grade I told those matchmakers that Ann didn’t like Ben anymore. Somehow he survived. LOL.
I’ll share more first romance stories in the next couple of weeks while my Celebration Giveaway continues. Deadline to enter is March 4, 2017 at midnight EST. You must be 18 to enter and the contest is open to USA and Canada. More details on that News & Events Page.
As always, thanks for reading. Some of you have told me you don’t have first romances to share, but isn’t it wonderful that there are all kinds of ways of being loved? The very best is being loved by God.
