I don’t really like the “lucky” idea, since it doesn’t account for the hard work and determination it takes to be happy or successful. I have the same queasiness when people tell me I have “the perfect life.” Happiness, like love, takes a lot of work to get and keep.

Still, when it’s applied to Maria, I knew what my friend Sue meant when I sent her this photo, and she wrote back, “You are the luckiest man in the world.”

No matter how it happened, it’s quite wonderful to have Maria in my life; it changed everything. She is wonderful in more ways than I can list.

Yesterday I broke out of quarantine and went to pick up our new car. I did get sick, of course, from being in 100-degree sun for too long. I was exhausted and wobbly by the end of the day.

I slept a long time, but Maria came with the canine squad of love to wake me up on a cheerful note for breakfast.

Hmmmm…Why is it, I wonder, that no one has ever said that to Maria…:). Hmmm.

This photo will go up on my office wall. Sue was right.