Let My Love Open the Door

Oil on board, 30x30, in black frame
 
 
It was Christmas Eve morning, around 7:30, when I heard a quiet knock at the front door.
 
The night before, I had been talking to my new boyfriend on the phone (the one in the kitchen with the cord so long I could almost walk upstairs with it). I was 19, and my dad and I had a tradition of waiting until the very last minute to buy the outside wreaths and race through the mall for lightning-fast Christmas shopping. It sounds a little insane now, but we had a system.
 
On the other side of the door was Mike.
 
Bright eyed with a big smile.
 
He had driven over two hours from New Jersey just to go wreath shopping with me and spend a little time together before getting back on the road at 10am.
 
What?!
 
I was stunned and completely elated.
 
I knew there was something different about him when we first met at work. He was the one rushing to hold the door for someone else, the first to jump up and lend a hand. And after more than three decades together, nothing has changed.
 
I’m not always easy, but he has remained patient, thoughtful, and kind.
 
And something happened that Christmas Eve all those years ago.
 
He found a way to open a door in me I didn’t even know was there.
 
“Let my love open the door 
Let my love open the door“
Let my love open the door
To your heart”
 
Music reference: Let My Love Open the Door by Pete Townsend