Here is what marriage has taught me about love: it isn’t merely a feeling, nor is it about words. Love is an active choice that you make regularly to not only perform grand gestures but also, and especially, to carry out mundane tasks like taking out the garbage or homeschooling your children during a pandemic lockdown. That’s weirdly the most romantic thing of all.
The actions woven into the decisions and daily sacrifices you make, over and over again, to improve someone else’s life - to pay attention and show adoration, to nurture their physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental health, to help them grow - are what truly matter. Words are like the air on top of the icing, meaningless without the cake of action.
Connection may be instantaneous, and attraction may be magical, but maintaining love is not. It requires hard work. The chemistry just makes it more fun, not easier.
Eleven years ago today, we chose to fly the covenant banner together on the ‘us versus the world’ team.
Happy 11th wedding anniversary, RD!