Sunshine Valley

Featherless biped

     Dillon found Evie sitting on their soon to be back porch wrapped in a blanket watching the sun set. As he set down, he picked her up putting her on his lap. As she snuggled in he asked, “feel better?”

     “I guess I’m the talk of the town?”

     “Widow Blake called me.”

     “Dillon, are you sure about me? As a featherless biped, most days, I’m okay. But it doesn’t seem to take anything for me to fall apart. Are you honestly sure you want to deal with this kind of stress?”

     He had to take that question apart with questions of his own. “Featherless biped?”

     “Plato defined a ‘human being’ as a ‘featherless biped’.”

     “I’m no walk in the park.”

     “You’re the most laid back featherless biped I know.”

     “Be that as it may.” She could feel him shrug. “Why didn’t you call or text me?”

     “I never know what you’re doing. It would kill me if I sent you a text and distracted you causin’ something bad to happen. To you or someone else.”

     “I understand that. You are my top priority.”

     “You’re mine. So we will need to work something out.”

     “Agreed.” He paused for a moment, “1 Corinthians 13:4-7.” Tree of Life Version “‘Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not brag, it is not puffed up, it does not behave inappropriately, it does not seek its own way, it is not provoked,
it keeps no account of wrong, it does not rejoice over injustice but rejoices in the truth; it bears all things, it believes all things,
it hopes all things, it endures all things.’

As Christians, we seek a love like this. How many of us can say, we love like this? Not only a romantic partner but ourselves.”

     Evie rose up in his lap. “Are you saying to me that you are going to love me like that passage?”

     “It is my goal to try.”

     “I need to love myself like that?”

     “I can’t tell you how to feel. The best I can do is tell you how I feel and try my best to show you. Though at times, I’m sure the words get lost.”

     She blushed, “I get that. It is much easier for me to love you like that than it is for me to love myself.”

Sunshine Valley