{"id":18221,"date":"2022-04-12T11:15:03","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T15:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/?p=18221"},"modified":"2024-08-29T13:26:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T17:26:56","slug":"best-gift-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/2022\/best-gift-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Gift Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Best Gift Ever\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<p>I grew up dreaming of finding the perfect love, Mr. Right, and a great romance that would sweep me off my feet. It didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a single woman since my early 30\u2019s, I have met a number of perfectly nice men. I\u2019ve even been in a handful of relationships. I used to joke that I had a boyfriend every five years, whether or not I needed one \u2013 I was only half joking. I had married right out of high school, so one husband and about five boyfriends later, I had pretty much decided that a great love wasn\u2019t going to happen for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then I kissed Dave. I shouldn\u2019t have, of course, we were just friends, but I did. Notice that I said I kissed him \u2013 make no mistake, I was the instigator of that kiss. It was supposed to be just a thank-you kiss, a thank-you for a nice day on the water, sailing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve always felt that kissing someone \u2013 properly, so to speak \u2013 should be reserved for someone special. I did kiss Dave properly, and I never do that. But this time I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It took him by surprise, as well it might. We had known each other for a very long time, true, but just as friends and not close ones, at that. For me, it was like an electric shock when my lips touched his. It was sudden and surprising, and it felt as though I had no bones. I would swear I felt that kiss all the way to my toes. A moment later he recovered and kissed me back. It was a great kiss!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That kiss and my reaction to it, and to him, took me completely by surprise. It was as if I had never been kissed before. And maybe I hadn\u2019t, not like that. When it finally ended and he went back to his car and drove away (he had driven me home), I closed the door and leaned against it. I didn\u2019t know where my reaction had come from \u2013 had I had a crush on him for almost 40 years? I realized that I probably had. There was nothing to do about it, though (another story!), but I went to sleep that night smiling. I had finally been kissed in the way I had dreamed of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He gave me a gift that day, the gift of a perfect kiss. One that I can take out of memory and relive whenever I want to. A memory that reassures me that kissing someone can rock you to your core, a kiss to remember. I think it would embarrass him to know this, and so I won\u2019t mention it to him. All the same, it was a gift and I will treasure it forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks, Dave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I grew up dreaming of finding the perfect love, Mr. Right, and a great romance that would sweep me off my feet. It didn\u2019t happen. As a single woman since my early 30\u2019s, I have met a number of perfectly nice men. I\u2019ve even been in a handful of relationships. I used to joke that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memoir"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18221"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24496,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18221\/revisions\/24496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}