North County writers Bill and Pam Farrel have done it again. This time it is with Love to Love You, perhaps the “heart tuggingist,” “misty eyed makingest,” warm and fuzzy book I’ve read in years. And while I will be the first to acknowledge that St. Valentine’s day is far from being a Christian observance, I will step over the lines of my concerns and offer this work as something that any two people in love should share.
The book is a series of simple, yet touching vignettes which deliver a powerful message and a road map to a better relationship with your loved one. Taking many of the lessons they must have learned from “Masterful Living,” an organization they co-founded to provide practical insights for modern couples, this book takes on the feel of a “romance” manual as opposed to a “marriage” manual. The second has the feel, even in the name, that there is something amiss, while this work seems to assume that even though everything is all right, it can be a whole lot better.
One of the things I liked the best about this book is that throughout, it sprinkled with Bible verses that seem to fit perfectly in the ongoing collection of events taken from the lives of the authors and others. In addition, they have reached into the minds and hearts of such writers as Thomas Moore, Shakespeare, Van Dyke and others to weave a wonderful tapestry of relationship goals that are SOOO romantic, they challenge the reader to get going on the recipe for the new bonding. From picnic planners to romantic letter writing, Love to Love You is a potpourri of marvelous ways to create romantic moments.
The hard cover book from Harvest House Publishers even has a loving look to it that would make your coffee table a perfect place for it. Perhaps to open the moments together that the authors suggest. The back cover of the book says it the best. “Discover the joy of creative romance – come together heart to heart.” And, as you read the “thumbnail” sketch of the work on the cover, it makes it almost impossible not to thumb through it.
They way the book is structured did the same thing to me. It’s almost impossible not to say, “yes,” over and over again as you look into the mirror of your relationships and realize that there is a great deal more you can do to make yourself and your mate more satisfied and content and blessed with your relationships. How, for example, could you turn down the ability to, as the cover states, “add sparkle and fun to your relationship”?
At first, I must confess, I thought this to be a book that my wife should be the one to read, so that she could have the great joy of bringing more romance into my life. Then I read it and discovered that much of the fun to be had was going to be mine. More importantly, I discovered that ALL of the fun and the joy and the sharing and the fulfillment was going to be OURS.
Paul McShane of Carlsbad is an author, businessman and journalist.
