Laid out on my bedroom floor are 32 years of memories. All taken from my special drawer – the place where I put things which are too precious to throw away.

There is a plaque of our wedding invitation a friend decoupaged for us as a wedding gift; There are the canceled checks of our marriage license, our wedding night hotel and the down payment on our first home, all penned by my husband;  There is the t-shirt our first baby wore home from the hospital 28 years ago;  There are ceramic shoes with the name and weight of our three children.  There are homemade cards produced by chubby little hands who could barely hold a crayon;  There are three plaster of paris handprints from our vacation by the sea;  There are memorial cards from the funerals of many loved ones who are no longer with us;  There are kindergarten graduation caps, sports memorabilia and even a scale model of the Space Shuttle Challenger – one of our son’s favorite toys – until that fateful morning.  Each item brings a flood of memories – precious moments captured in time.

But the biggest pile of memories is the stack of cards I’ve received through the years.  Yes, I’m a hopeless romantic.  I have difficulty throwing away anything that has sentimental value.  And today this fact is lifting my spirits and causing joy to well up inside of me.  As I read through card after card from my husband declaring his love for me at various stages of our life together:  1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years all the way to last month when I shared my birthday with Tom for the 32nd time, I realize these sentiments are priceless.  Although a card isn’t very expensive – the love that is shared is more than worth it.  In so many ways cards help us say the things we can’t say ourselves, or they say it better than we could.  Cards are an extension of us, sharing not only the words they express, but the time it took to find it.

But by far my favorite of any card is the handwritten part on the inside of each one.  My husband excels at sharing his heart to me personally at the end of every card.  It’s usually not long, but it’s the words he’s chosen just for me.  I could easily gloss over it and take his words for granted, but you know what?  I found a card from my grandmother from when I was first married today.  I probably didn’t think too much about it then.  But now the simple words she chose to write are priceless to me.

What a gift it is to have a spouse who loves me and finds ways to express his love in simple, but meaningful ways.  My room is filled with his handwriting on the floor.

How about you?  Have you saved your cards through the years?  Are they precious to you, or do you tend to take them for granted?  Or maybe cards aren’t something you’ve exchanged very often.  Why not take a moment this weekend and buy one for no special reason?  Take time to pick the perfect one and then, sign it with words expressing how you love your mate.  It may end up being a keeper!