How would you define or describe true love? Hollywood shows us that true love is two people running towards each other in slo-motion, possibly in an airport or field of poppies. De Beers would have us believe that true love is a flawless 4 carat, colorless diamond in a cushion setting. And some consider true love the act of coming home to a hot meal and open arms after a long day at work. I guess these are all valid definitions. However I have learned that true love can be as simple as the act of sledding.
This past week, I flew to Germany to spend the week (and New Years) with Martin and his family. With a direct flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt, I expected the 10 hour flight to, well, fly by…And things went surprisingly well until I tried to get some sleep in preparation for the inevitable coffee and cake upon my arrival. Unfortunately for me, the 3 year old girl across the aisle decided to learn her alphabet on her iPad – without headphones – at that exact moment…Hours 5-7 of the 10 hour flight were spent listening to the alphabet song, sung to the tune of Three Blind Mice (A goes ah, A goes ah, this is the alphabet and A goes ah).
And just when things started to improve (her batteries died), I was hit by a wave of nausea and a very unexpected bout of motion sickness requiring an emergency trip to the bathroom, a false alarm during landing (thank god for the bags) a painful bus ride to the main terminal with threats of puking on someone’s bag and another mad dash to the terminal bathroom after meeting Martin (“hi Martin, Merry Christmas, now hold my purse while I run to revisit my dinner”).
After finally pulling myself together, we drove to the village of Loessel, home of the Breuer Family, and upon arrival I had just enough time to brush my teeth before lunch with Martin’s Mom, Dad, Sister and Sister’s boyfriend. Lunch was followed immediately by coffee and after coffee it was decided that the “Kids” were going to go sledding within the hour… Apparently it was the most snow the area had had in almost 20 years and it was expected to melt within days so we had to go that afternoon/evening. Martin was really excited to go and had the whole outing planned down to the packing of the gluh-wein and hot tea.
Although warned the previous week about going sledding, I was not fully prepared; it was colder than I had ever experienced. So, with the -5 degree weather and slight wind chill, I put on every article of clothing I had (and even borrowed some of Martin’s), put on a smile, packed my best attitude and ventured out into the elements. A 10 hour flight, 2 hour drive, 2 hour lunch and coffee, no sleep, no shower and no food in my stomach, and yet I still managed to pull myself together to make Martin happy.
I enjoyed 3 quick, fast runs down the hill (giggling like a little school girl the whole way down), followed by 3 longer, slower walks back up the hill (grunting and gasping for air like an 80 year old smoker). But it didn’t matter, Martin was happy and in return, I was happy too.
After “we”, meaning Martin, had gotten our fill of both the sledding and the wine we returned home where I was finally able to take a hot shower and fall asleep.
