Letter from Jason – February 2024

Dear Honey Run Friends,

Naturally, February is the month of love. With Valentine’s Day in the middle of the month this holiday seems to take center stage in all commercial marketing and if we are honest in us. As I reflect on love and what it means in my life I am flooded with emotions. Beginning with happy thoughts this Valentines Day certainly holds new meaning for me. Most Valentines Days I am filled with hope for love. I enjoy seeing loving couples out on dates sharing their most valued gift, their time with each other. This Valentines Day is a first for me having found the love of my life and this will be my last first Valentines Day. Going forward this holiday will be a marker in our relationship of another blessed year together and a hopeful reminder of the blessing we are to each other in life.

Love is a funny thing as it is exciting it is scary also. Once found, the fear of not having this love in your life can be devastating. This makes me think of my grandparents and the devastation my grandfather experienced when had to bury his bride of 62 years. He was lost. The grief he walked through was hard to watch and though he lived 6 years after my grandmother passed, he effectively died the day she did. He never recovered. But graciously God took him home and my hope is that they are both dancing with Jesus knowing the greatest love to have ever existed in the presence of their Savior for eternity.

Grief is a real part of love. Without grief and pain, we would never know the joy or depth of love in this life. The poet Alfred Lord Tennyson knew this grief and wrote about it In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII. I have never fully appreciated poetry as an art form but in this poem with the rhythmic pattern of words and the raw emotion comes to life. The famous quote:

“I hold it true, whate’er befall;

         I feel it, when I sorrow most;

         ‘Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.”

This quote could not ring truer. If we are all seeking love and to be loved in this life to never try love is the greatest tragedy of life. I pray that each of you know true love and know that you are loved in your life. And while we all wish for this love on earth, I pray you know the greatest love of all from your Lord and Savior. The love of God is one that will never fail you, never leave you, and no fear is needed as His love will never end.

Happy Valentines Day! Here is a link if you want to read the complete poem of Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Your loving Innkeeper,

Jason