AGiftForYou

A Gift for You

It was late evening on January 9th when
Catherine wearily sighed as she closed her briefcase.
She had just finished writing her closing arguments
for the case she was assigned to.
However, it was not the court case
that had left her feeling dissatisfied.
It was the fact she had yet to come up
with a suitable gift for Vincent's Birthday.
Still sitting at her desk,
she carefully picked up the book
Vincent had given to her as a Christmas gift,
"The Love Poems of John Keats".
Opening the cover, she ran her fingers
over the inscription that Vincent had written inside.
Aloud she read,

"Catherine,
may the love of literature, and poetry,
help you to become the writer
you were meant to be,
Vincent."

She thought back over the last few months,
and recalled how Vincent
had been encouraging her to do some writing.
It all began after she had showed Vincent
a collection of poems and short stories she had written
for a Journalism class when she attended college.
He was quite impressed with her work,
and said her talent for writing should not be ignored.
This thought inspired her this night,
and it was then she decided for Vincent's Birthday,
she would write something for him.

She picked up a pen and found some paper,
and did not stop until her letter was finished.
Reading over her words many times,
changing this, and adding that,
she finally felt satisfied she had given her heart a voice
by exchanging words for her feelings.
Catherine thought how liberating it was
for her to express herself this way,
for there was no woman on this earth,
who had more cause to be inspired by a man, than she.

Vincent's Birthday finally arrived,
and like the January 12th, he was found outside of
St. Vincent's Hospital, all those years ago,
it was just as bitter cold!
Icy frigid winds blew over Catherine's balcony,
bringing tiny tag-along crystallized snow flakes
from the neighboring rooftops.
And on this wintry night,
Catherine waited outside to greet Vincent
on his Birthday.
As she looked over the city,
she anxiously awaited his arrival,
when...like beautiful music resonating
from a finely tuned instrument,
she heard Vincent speak her name.
Turning toward him,
they looked at one another for a moment
before she smiled, and softly told him,
"Happy Birthday".
She then took his hand in hers,
and said, "Come inside Vincent,
I have some tea steeping to warm you."
Silently he followed in his hesitant,
unassuming manner which he owned
whenever he stepped over her threshold.

With only candles burning for light,
Catherine had Vincent's favorite music
softly playing for him.

Taking his cloak, she invited him to sit down.
As she poured the tea for them,
this gave Vincent the chance
to unabashedly look at his Catherine.
She was so lovely,
and he was pleased to see
she was wearing the necklace that he had given to her.
Smiling over at him, Catherine asked,
"What are you thinking?
I see a smile in your eyes.
I hope this means you are happy
to be here with me on your most special day."
Softly he replied,
"It does, there is no place else I would rather be."
Attempting to stifle the eagerness
she had in giving her gift to him,
she calmly picked it up from the table.
However, the excitement in her voice gave her away
as she presented
his beautifully tissue wrapped present to him.
Shakily she said,
"I have a gift for you. I hope that you will like it."
In wonderment he looked down
at how delicately his present was wrapped,
and felt warmed by Catherine's generosity.
Lifting only his eyes, he captured her radiant gaze
with his own, before he opened his gift.
Inside, was a red soft suede, Italian wrapped journal.
Vincent untied the bow,
and opened up to the ribbon marked page.
As he began to silently read what Catherine had
written, he stopped,
and sweetly he looked at her,
and asked if she would read
what she had written aloud to him.
Shyly smiling, Catherine consented and began:

Dearest Vincent,
Remember that day,
I told you how much I loved you,
and of how badly I needed you in my life?
You tipped your head as you pondered my words,
and you then asked me why this was so.
I answered you playfully, and said,
"Because I just do."
But as I looked into your eyes,
I realized you really wanted to know.
You had asked your question with such earnestness,
that I thought you deserved a better answer
than the one I gave you on that day.
So I will do my best to answer you now,
in this Birthday letter to you.
I need you because you nourish my heart every day,
by who you are, and the way that you love me.
Your appeal happens to expand all areas,
and scope to me.
The words you choose to convey your feelings for me
make me feel loved and so worthy.
I am astounded daily by your talent to do this.
You find the words within your heart
to share your deepest feelings
and the most fleeting of your profound thoughts.
How lucky I am to be included in your life,
and be privy to such brilliance.
You have a hunger and thirst
for so many diverse areas.
And when you zero in on a subject to conquer,
you devour all the perspective information
you can learn about it.
Your ability to then utilize what you have absorbed
is astounding, and your enthusiasm to share what you
know is exciting and so cute.
You have the heart of a teacher...
you love to incite the desire in others to learn,
and to know too.
Your giving nature knows no bounds.
You please all those around you
with the way you help them do
what is needed to be done.
Whether you do it yourself,
work along side them,
or lend them the assistance it is they are in need of.
Yet...you never make them feel needy or incompetent
in the process, but rather you manage
to make them feel special,
because you seem to enjoy helping them so much.
Your strong arms, have held me tightly to you, when
I needed your comfort,
and have provided the allotted oasis,
for the permitted union of our souls.
I love too your sense of humor.
Your subtleties make me smile and laugh with your
wit and your introspective perspectives.
And your voice...ahh, your rich yet tender voice,
resounding so pleasing in my ears.
Always managing to stir that within me,
that causes passion to reign over my entire self.
It is true, it takes only the sound of your voice to
invoke my want of you.
I dream of the day that we are able to dissolve away
the barriers that keep us so intimately apart.
The gentleness in your eyes,
your beautiful blue eyes are a reflection of your heart,
the good kind heart that craves a sweet Godly
righteousness for all that you love.
And yet, this same heart beats a passionate cadence,
that transcends and imagines
the most romantic of fantasies.
Yes you are a romantic man
who needs dreams and who wishes for a life,
where only love exists,
where no one is abandoned,
or left behind.
You are like me, and I am like you.
Never in my life have I loved,
or been loved this completely or so very sweetly.
On what ever level we are allowed to love,
please know and remember this,
I will never leave you.
You will always have me in your life.
I love you with all my heart,
and because of this,
our souls will be forever connected,
here on earth, and tomorrow in the Heavens.
I will love and need you always, until the end of time.
All my love, Catherine"

Closing the journal,
she realized she was crying
tears of love for her Vincent.
As she looked up at him,
she thought he seemed to have a look of questioning
wonderment on his face.
Hadn't the Birthday letter she had written to him
explained why she loved and needed him so?
Touching his cheek, she softly asked,
"Vincent, tell me what is wrong."

Taking Catherine gently into his arms,
he recited Shakespeare's Sonnet 29.

When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep
my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself,
and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Catherine still nestled within his embrace,
listened as Vincent shared,
"The first time I read this sonnet, I was certain
Shakespeare had reached through the centuries
to communicate with me.
However, it was not until I met you,
that his words gave me any comfort,
or gained full understanding."
He softly added,
"I have read varying views of love from Shakespeare,
Keats, Frost, Lord Byron and Kipling.
However, none of their verses have warmed my heart
as yours have Catherine.
As each birthday comes and goes,
it causes me to question my existence,
evaluate my worth.
I ask God why I am here...for what purpose?
Today he has finally answered me...I now know that
you are my purpose...my destiny. For you on this
years marking of my birth, have provided me with
such sweet answers. Today instead of cursing my fate,
I count my many Blessings.
What a gift you have given me.
The gift of value and self worth."
Smiling up at him, she whispered,
"You have given me those things too Vincent."
She then passionately beseeched,
"Stay with me...until the morning comes."
Contemplating her request,
he held her tightly and said he would stay
and as they sat snuggled warmly together
gazing toward the horizon,
awaiting the dawning of the new day
they both understood
this was a new dawning
for them as well.