Valentine's Day Gift

Let's Float Away Together on the Pages of a Book.

-Anonymous?

Over the weekend, Moe and I rekindled a commitment that always serves us well. We select a book that will help us grow closer as a couple, and we take turns reading it aloud.?

Moe had just finished reading Brene Brown's new book?"Atlas of the Heart. Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience,"?and she thought we could benefit by reading it to?each other.?

In the book, Brené Brown writes, "If we want to find the way back to ourselves and one another, we need language, and the grounded confidence to both tell our stories and be stewards of the stories that we hear."

When my parents were first married, they had no money for entertainment, so they bought the paperback version of Margaret Mitchell's epic historical romance bestseller?Gone With the Wind?and spent months reading its 1024 pages to each other. It's the number two best seller ever after the Bible.

They shared with me that they hung on every word and referred back to those days as golden moments they cherished throughout their lives.?

Moe and I always grow closer after we read together. Generally, we'll read about thirty pages and then share what we learned and how we can apply it. Two books we've read together that were game-changers for us were Conscious Loving and Conscious Living by Gay and Katherine Hendricks.

Both books have given us tools and the understanding of the importance of taking 100% responsibility for our choices and actions?and taught us how to respond when we trigger one another.

Reading together creates a magical connection at any age.

For most of us fortunate enough to have had our mom or dad read to us, we remember?it as an intimate time of connection and comfort.?

And for those of us who are parents or grandparents, reading to a child and watching their imaginations create images of the characters and locations are precious moments.?

I encourage you and someone you love to read poetry together?as an extra special Valentine's Day gift.

Here is one?of my favorites.

I Love You

I love you,

Not only for what you are,

But for what I am when I am with you.

I love you,

Not only for what you have made of yourself,

But for what you are making of me.

I love you for

the part of me that you bring out;

I love you for

putting your hand into my heaped-up heart

And passing over all the foolish, weak things

that you can't help dimly seeing there,

And for drawing out into the light

All the beautiful things

that no one else had looked

Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you have done

More than any creed

Could have done

To make me good,

And more than any fate could have done

To make me happy.

You have done it

Without a touch,

Without a word,

Without a sign.

You have done it by being yourself

Perhaps that is what

Being a friend means, after all.

-Roy Croft

"Poetry is emotion recollected in tranquility,"?

-Wordsworth

If you want to receive Rich’s invaluable lessons daily sign up for his newsletter HERE .

?Rich's latest book People, Time & Money is available HERE .

?www.coachtothebest.com