Choose your love...then love your choice.
Ten years. 520 weeks. 3,650 days. Three children.
Looking back on a million kisses and a few broken dreams, it's clear that getting married was the easy part...choosing the ultimate dress, selecting the wedding music, planning the perfect day.
Staying married--that's much more challenging. Marriage wouldn't seem so hard if we didn't go into it expecting it to be so easy. A great marriage is never accidental. It's hard work...involving the will, the mind, the body, the emotions. It's a series of adjustments and compromises...an ebb and flow, but the love it brings...ahh, the love...
I Love You. Nothing can prepare you for those three little words.
No one tells you when he looks in your eyes and says, "I love you", you'll be resurrected. In an instant, you are different. All that you were, you cease to be. All that you weren't, you become. Suddenly, you are somebody. Somebody's soul mate. You are changed forever, because love is a short word that contains everything.
With him, even the most mundane moments can be exciting...taking a walk hand-in-hand or sitting by the edge of the river rustling the pages of a good book. He always knows what to say, how to read between the lines. With him, I feel safe enough to shed my defenses and risk being completely myself.
He is the warrior hero of my story...always ready, sword drawn, to fight whatever battle necessary to protect me. In the most intense circumstances, he gives me permission to be broken and lets me know he's available without being condescending.
When I was a girl, marriage seemed boring to me. I'd ask my mom, "Does Daddy give you tingles?"
"It's not really a tingly feeling, honey", she'd say. "It's heavier now, something weightier."
I never understood. How could anything in the world be better than that tingly feeling in the pit of my tummy?
Ten years into this adventure called marriage I finally understand. The trippy, gooey feelings that ruled the beginning of our relationship have been replaced by a steady, burning fire and I frequently get lost in the feeling that no two have ever loved the way we do...that there's not a more beautiful experience than loving him and discovering the grandest idea of love isn't in the falling...it's in the staying there.
