This One Small Box

I have this box. It lives quietly on the bottom shelf of my nightstand. It doesn’t get visited all that often, but it is a very important box. It is worth more to me than all the money in a Swiss bank. If my house was burning (and my son was safe) I would likely run back inside to rescue this one small box. It is the most precious non-living thing on this earth to me.

What, you might ask, is so special about this box? Well, the box itself is really no big deal. It’s small, brown, and rather ordinary with a worn-out AT&T logo on top. Other than the “Do Not X-ray” note on its cover there is nothing particularly striking about it, but this was the box my first Valentine from my husband came in. Inside this box are dozens and dozens of hand written love letters, the result of us being apart for four months very early on in our love-affair. This box contains my hard-evidence of the crazy, all-encompassing love that lived here on earth for a while. As I read the words of some of these letters I can’t help but feel that my husband misses me now just as much as I miss him.

So, when I find myself desperately lonely for this person I loved so much that has now left, I simply open up this box and read his words of our love. His words, written in his own hand, sustain me. I know for certain that they will, in fact, sustain me for the rest of my life. This box will help me remember to be hopeful, to remember that love like this does exist here on earth, if only for a little while. I am thankful that I was able to be a part of this love that was and am grateful every day for the gift of this one small box.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Contributed by Sarah.