Love.
Romantic love.
When I was younger, I had a very practical view of love. To me, love simply was marriage and everything that came with it. Husband and wife. Kids and family vacations. Church and family gatherings. I thought love was just the production of husband, wife, and family.
Experience and maturity have taught me differently, and every day, I am learning the meaning of what romantic love and what being in love really is.
It's having unbridled, uninhibited fun. Laughing at everything or at nothing at all. It's finding the excitement in the mundane. It's intertwining toes in your sleep.
It's passing gas on each other and being utterly disgusted and reluctantly amused at the same time. It's critiquing without judging, nurturing without enabling.
Being in love...
It's caring nothing about what others think about them. It's being proud of their imperfections and thankful they accept yours. It really is taking long walks in the park because it's those times when you can't get in the car and leave that you learn how to tolerate the intolerable.
It's him rubbing your belly when you're cramping. Stroking his ego when his pride is hurt.
Love.
It's being excited about each other's ideas and encouraging them to spare no expense in following their dreams. Love is pushing them past the precipice and into their own gold mine. Love is sharing the riches.
It's being one. It's being individuals. Being equals.
Love is enjoying one dollar microwave dinners together with the same enthusiasm you have when you dine out lavishly. Love is not being afraid to say, "we can't afford to dine out lavishly."
Love is having a unique language of inaudibles spoken fluently by only the two of you. It's doing for them what you wouldn't do for anyone else ... including yourself.
It's hurting and healing. Experimenting and trusting. Respecting and depending. Revealing. Sharing. Sacrificing.
It's finding them desirable even when they leave their socks on when you make love.
Living in it, embracing it, and becoming better because of it.
LOVE
