journey in love

before I got married, I told my friend, michelle, that all I wanted from her was a deighton original.  I knew it was asking a lot, considering exams were looming in the near future, and she had showers to throw for me and other organizational, grown-up things to do as my matron of honour.  I really wasn't sure if she could pull it off.
artistically?  absolutely
time wise?  not so sure
but she did
I remember them coming over to our apartment the week after we were hitched, not sure if maybe they should be leaving us alone since we didn't have a honeymoon and had had to be around all kinds of family for christmas.  michelle brought the painting upstairs, wrapped in bath towels, and presented it to us.

journey in love

it has hung in a prominant place in every apartment and house we have ever lived in, papua new guinea excepted.  I often find myself staring at it, wondering what part of the journey am I living right now?  is it a darker patch of paint I'm swimming in, or is it the lightest shade of white?

To fear is to expect punishment. To love is to know we are immersed not in darkness, but in light.
- Mother Teresa

perception plays a part

I know there are seasons I have gone through, in the 39 years of my life, and the 17 years I have been married.  life isn't always easy, or simple, nor can every circumstance be explained away with a simple pat answer, but I wouldn't change a single thing. 
last night, before succumbing to sleep, I had just finished looking at pictures of a dear friend's birthday, and I was overcome with emotion, thinking about all the friends I have, all over the world, literally.  I wondered, in that brief moment, how I ever got to be so blessed by so much love, both in giving and receiving.

I look at michelle's painting and I feel as though I can say there ... that brush stroke represents the time I ... and that ... that colour symbolizes everything I was feeling when ... and this ... this is what I am aspiring to, for the future.