365 Inspirations—45: A Letter to my Husband on Valentine's Day

On our Wedding Day in Korea, May 10, 2003

Dear Yoon,

Valentine's Day is just another day, right? Still, as busy as we both are, I want to take some time to tell you how much you mean to me.

I haven't always been the easiest person to be married to and have gone through my share of ups and downs. Lately, I've been more down than up.

For almost eighteen years, we've always found our way back to each other, even when things seemed shaky or like they might break apart.

It hasn't been an easy road for us. You're from the East, I'm from the West. You were a monk when I met you, I was a crazy American girl with wanderlust traveling around trying to find what the meaning of life was.

You left everything to be with me. You left the monastery, your country—pretty much everything. When you arrived at my apartment door in Korea, all you had was a tiny backpack and the clothes on your back.

You had never known a life outside the monastery, yet in that very first year of living with me, you had set up a yoga business in my living room. I came back from Christmas with family in New York City to find a bunch of people in stretch pants on yoga mats saying, "Ommmm..."

You had a knack for teaching yoga and had lots of training in the monastery and in India. You brought so much experience with you.

I can't forget the day you said, "I found a building!" I had no idea how we would pay for a building or a sign or everything else that came with forming a yoga school in Korea, but you believed it would happen and it DID! Again and again and again....

Fast forward to 2013, and you are the owner and teacher at a beautiful yoga studio near Seattle and have led retreats all over the place! You are my BIGGEST inspiration.

Because of your belief that things would work out, you have encouraged me to fulfill many of my own dreams (i.e. blogging, book writing, etc.).

I know it wasn't easy to hang up your robe and decide to walk a very different path with me. I know it took so much courage. And here you are, still walking by my side, through the thick and thin.

Thank you for being by my side. Thank you for believing in me and loving me even when things seem difficult or hard. Thank you for your gift of teaching yoga. You have inspired and helped so many people, including me.

I love you so much and I am so happy you are still with me after all these years!

Your wife,
Katherine

*To my readers:
I hope you will take the time to tell the people in your life how much you love them. It is so easy to take the people closest to us for granted.