Here's one for Love.

I was thinking the other day on my drive home from Artesia that love gets kind of a bad rap... actually, maybe I should clarify further. I think marriage/lifelong relationships don't really get a whole lot of credit these days. Just about anywhere you look in today's media (TV, pop music, etc) people refer to marriage assuming that none of them are going to work in the long run, and that everyone is unhappy if married. Assuming all of us want out of these relationships, and that the ideal life is when one is free to go about life without care of someone else's feelings. Well, that said, I want to give marriage a little credit...

I'm happily married. In fact, I would say I'm "extremely" happily married. Here's why...

I'm married to a man who loves me to pieces, and he works hard to show me that every day, even when we're apart. He gives real effort to becoming the best man he can be, and makes progress on it everyday. And he doesn't change things because I've given him some sort of Minimums list... he changes because he seeks out ways to be a better husband. And you know what? It makes me want to be a better wife for him. I've noticed so many changes in him since we first met. Not just about how he treats me, but who he is in general, and how he treats everyone. I love living life with a partner who is willing to grow with me. Makes me wake up each day excited about what's around the corner. It makes me confident that no matter what happens, we're going to figure a way to make the best of the situation, and that we're going to be together through it to the end. He's made me realize that true love really does exist, but it doesn't just happen. True love is something that is worked out everyday - key word: work. But the benefits of that kind of relationship far outweigh the "stuff" you have to work through. Every day that we keep working on it, is another day in making a habit to love each other actively, not passively.

We met a man this weekend who just celebrated his 60th wedding anniversary. He told us that he and his wife "just never had the kind of problems that some people do". The skeptic in me wondered if his wife would have said the same thing, but the hopeful in me thought that it just might be possible. I'm hopeful that it might be possible based on my real life experience with my Joseph. I hope we get 60 years together too... what a life.