Valentine's Surprise

Here’s a nice little one-day story. A surprise Valentine that magicked up for me this year. So many cool little things in the day I had to share. 

For many years now I’ve decided that Valentine’s Day is just about love, all love, and I send as much of it out as I can, instead of buying into the negativity that the many people for whom all the fairytale expectations aren’t measuring up to, are ‘supposed’ to feel. Such a relief to be allowed to let go of that negativity isn’t it? I am so glad I learned how to count all the joys — my son, my friends, generous wonderful bosses and clients — so much to be grateful for. But this year I was surprised with a Valentine romance, too!

My surprising Valentine 

I found him about 7 o'clock in the morning.

He posted on a friend's Facebook page (friend had noted that there was heart-shaped salami in Germany for Valentine’s Day) that he needed a girlfriend because then next Valentine's Day he could do up this lovely recipe he had found for stuffed lamb's hearts on skewers, or maybe artichoke hearts on skewers. So I sent him a friend request and said, ask and ye shall receive, but I'll have the artichoke hearts please.

So. Just like that he agreed to be my valentine, and didn't mind that I only wanted artichoke hearts and probably not the lamb hearts as lambs are so sweet. I said probably all the good bloodthirsty girls had been snapped up already. (I had surmised that he might venerate bloodthirstiness a little, at least in theory, because his Facebook page recorded that he has a re-enactment hobby as a long-haired Celtic warrior (I love long-haired men!)).

And then I noticed that he puts the same symbol on his face as I wear on my neck all the time. The triscale. Or triskell as he spells it in England. And then he said he has a triscale on his watch chain too, the one he wears every day. So that’s kind of neat for a surprise Valentine, that it happens that we wear the same exact symbol on our daily adornment.

We kept chatting on and off all day – it was difficult to focus on computer work with this delightful bit of fun going on! When he found out that I live in a town called Wolfville, he said that in Breton (except he calls it properly brezhoneg, as you would in the Breton language) Wolfville would be Kerbliez, settlement of the wolf.

Swoon. If you could pick a topic that I might find most romantic of anything to talk about right now, it would be the Breton language. One of my most favourite things last year was my study of Breton and of Cornwall and of Breton music. (I’m a writer, working on some books placed there, but also have been working on Breton music, because I lived in Brittany all last year). I moved back to Canada to suit my son’s needs, but my heart cries for Brittany and Cornwall nearly every day. Doing my best to be there, but maybe my sense of romance is still over there. The books I’m writing at the moment are all over there. Drustan doesn't live in Cornwall, but very close, in Exeter, in Devon.

At some point during the day I see a female has posted Valentine's endearments in the Cornish language on his wall, and I tease about there being competition and me having claimed him, but it turns out the lady is his mother. :) She asks, since "win" means friend in Cornish, has her son not told her something? (my name being Bedwin). Have to love a man's mother egging one on. :) In an intriguing ancient language one loves, no less.

So then somehow he tells me the names of some of his favourite songs that he plays on his lyre/sings, and tells me the history of the songs and we chat about Breton independence, another favourite topic of mine. And finds the sheet music to send me so I can practice them on my flute. <3 And sent me some videos of him playing/singing. Serenaded! On Valentine's Day!

And we trade ages as decimal multiples of (yes, I'm a math nerd) my favorite Breton number, tre-ch'wech, (he didn’t guess 18 though, when I asked if he could guess my favourite Breton number, he guessed 5, because “pemp” sounds funny, but I meant 3 x 6 for 18 IS funny and he agreed). I was much surprised to discover that he’s younger, not older, than me, since he has more grey hair than I do. But he says (ever the gentleman, my surprise Valentine) that it doesn’t matter, his ex was more years older than him than I am. And honestly I have several older exes in my own cobwebs but I've really been feeling that now, my partner is younger (and most boyfriends in recent years have been younger than me, and they've approached me, so why say no!).

Later in the evening, we even discovered that we have the same two favourite Scotch whiskies – Talisker and Lagavulin – and we shared a drink and some cozy time… albeit not in the same physical place together though by this time I really was thinking it sure would nice to be in the same room with this guy! I suggested the soundtrack of the Last of the Mohicans for scotch-drinking sound track and he said, wow, did you suggest that because you saw the video of me playing it? No, I said, I just had a feeling. So then he sent along that video. :)

We had a nice long debate over whether I can call my 5^thcentury Cornwall character Eamon… I have to admit I have little leg to stand on with that one, and that Iseult (Isolde) also means white flower, so I toyed with the idea of changing my character Blodwyn to Isolde… but I don’t know, Isolde’s Redemption doesn’t really sound the same as Blodwyn’s Redemption. And I’m not sure that I buy the notion of changing Eamon to Jawon (all the names he was offering were  

I was amused to note that when I looked up the distance between us Google earth showed not just our two locations, but also the curve of the Earth so I could get an idea of the scale of the distance between us. But you know, it’s not inconceivable that I’ll go to Brittany/Cornwall/Exeter this summer… I'd already been toying with the idea, in fact.

And then I was telling a friend about this extraordinary little tale and she said maybe it’ll turn out to be tonkadur and I said what’s that? And sure enough she’d looked up fate/destiny/fortune in the Breton dictionary. It sure was — because what a wonderful sign of alignment to be offered a Valentine who aligns in so many ways, and sweet awesome generous friends who get me!

It might just be a magical little moment out of time, one that made me really happy for the number of signs of alignment and the sheer joy of the fun of it or it could be something real, in time. Isn’t it interesting how little there can be, really, between something being just dreams on the internet or a changed way of life?

Years ago, I would have worried about what comes next. And what if this, and what if that. And this and that don't match. But now, I just feel delighted at the lovely, lovely day. Obviously a great sign of being on the path to better and ever better things in life. Isn’t it lovely to get signs like that?