Wooed by Words

George is a scientist, but he doesn’t think like one. Or, I should say, he doesn’t think like most people expect a scientist to think. He loves biology for its beauty. He sees the art in life. He sees the hand of the Artist behind it. George is a scientist, but he’s also a poet. A painter. A musician. George is an Artist’s artist, and science just happens to be his medium.

I admire George’s knowledge. I’m proud of his academic achievements. But, if you want to know the honest truth, those aren’t the qualities that I first fell in love with. It was the soul I saw when I looked into those blue, blue eyes. (I sat here for a few moments trying to think of the right word to describe the color of blue, but it’s really just so very blue that doubling it will have to suffice.) It was the way I belonged with him. The fit. The comfortable ease of being.

And it was his voice.

George never studied music. He never sang in a choir. He taught himself to play the guitar, and he simply sang the song that came out when he opened his mouth. I don’t know much about sound waves–how they work, why some register as pleasant and others as grating. I don’t know the physics of what happened when George sang, but I do know that the music wrapped itself around my heart and broke it in the best way.

When we sang together, the notes met and blended like rich sweet cream stirred into smooth, dark chocolate and melted over subtle flame. They tingled.

And then there were his words. Written words–scraps of paper with snatches of cryptic promise in bits of poetry–slipped into my mailbox. Happy messengers biding their time in tidy script, their proper appearance belying a patient passion. Words that made me catch my breath with hope.

He wooed me with words. Words he wrote and words he sang. Words he spoke. Words he didn’t speak, but he couldn’t keep those blue, blue eyes from whispering.

My heart heard and answered.

I don’t know much about science, but I understand a little bit about chemistry. It’s what happens when two things that were meant to come together combine and create something brand new and unbelievably beautiful.

I married a scientist. Now you know why.