I was walking to the bathroom just now when the some of the most vivid colors I’ve seen in nature appeared through the window in the corner of my eye. I stopped, transfixed, gazing out at one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. Its hues drew me for a better look toward the window and then through it to the roof outside. My feet walked along the shingles, my eyes locked on the purple tones and other living pigments that mere words can never adequately describe. I sat on a gableand stared at the sky. The cirrus clouds in the west hovered above the horizon, changing tone by the minute.

As I sat there, I realized what it’s all about. I experienced my enlightenment, except unlike Buddha and his bo tree, I was under a live oak on top of a roof. My eyes drank in the beauty before me as my optic nerves delivered the information to a cynical mind that asked, “So?” And itwas then that I realized that it didn’t matter what life threw at me… as long as I had someone to share it with.

As the last shades of pink slipped away and I got up to leave, I noticed that an oddly shaped cloud farther above was moving slowly to my eyes but undoubtably very swiftly at its high altitude. It almost looked like a jet trail, spread out long after its originator had disappeared. But it wasn’t straight like an airplane’s path should be. It curved up and came down to a point. I frowned and stepped back to get a better view. The rest of it appeared from behind one of the oak’s limbs. Then I laughed. “The dang thing’s heart shaped!” I almost said out loud. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was as if one of those sky writing planes had drawn a huge valentine in the sky. Maybe one had, I don’t know. But the sides of it blew slowly outward like nebula from a supernova, leaving Venus shining much too brightly from inside. I laughed again, climbed back in the window, and slammed it shut.

So happy Valentine’s Day, everybody. Or something.

I got mine.