Falling in Fall

My husband and I often get those accolades that we "are in young love" and are still in the "honeymoon phase", and while we can't argue that we are deeply in love with each other as young (?) 27 year old idealists, we are also awakening to the reality of each other.  Friends for over nine years, a couple for one, lovers for now three months, I can say that I am "waking up" to the real hubby. As my husband put it, "I had fallen in love with the idea of you, and now I am falling in love with the real you!"

How easy it is to fall in love with the idea of something.  Of course its bound to happen, even if you have known the person for 40 years before marriage, there is still an 'otherness' of that person.  A distinction from who they are, to what you believe of them.  Yet, marriage is this wonderful concept of the otherness becoming one.  No longer can we cherish the image over the reality, for the distinction between the two is quickly apparent. 

So, I can say I'm still falling in love.  And what a wonderful season to fall in?  Each day and each moment I'm given the opportunity to try to understand and love the man and not the mirage.  I'm grateful that the man has much more substance and won't turn out to be a farce, nor will it be the paradise in the desert that it once appeared.  No, its a lot more gritty than that.  It involves a lot more than my imagination or selfish inclinations, it involves reality.  Our fairy tale come true.  The happily ever after has begun, the confetti has been swept up and yet love is still there-- waiting for us to choose it each day as we clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience bearing with one another and if one has a compliant against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  And above all else put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3:12-14

Not as Fools

Greetings Neighbor,

I'd like to start my blog with a song (feel free to sing along & snap at the appropriate  time).

It's such a good feeling/ To know you're alive / It's such a happy feeling/ You're growing inside/ And when you wake up, ready to say/ "I think I'll make a snappy new day."  

It's such a good feeling / A very good feeling / The feeling you know that we're friends. 

Mr. Roger voice over, "You always make each day a special day. By just you're being you. There's only one person exactly like you in the whole world. And that's you yourself, and I like you.

It's such a good feeling/ A very good feeling/ The feeling you know that we're friends.

Hold on, I need to switch my proverbial shoes and put on my real sweater (OK, its actually a 3/4 length ae T).  Don't mind that its going to get to 91 degrees today, my husband knows, I still need another layer.  Perhaps, its the fact that I am once again employed as a nanny and my days are filled with nursery rhymes, Robin Hood, Peter Rabbit, bottles, burps, and rocking chairs, but Mr. Rogers has been coming to mind lately.  What a creative guy.  Didn't he make you just feel so safe & loved?  I want to just crawl up on his lap and hug him.  He reminds me of my grandpa, always singing or whistling a tune and tossing his hat on the door knob.

What ever happened to having neighbors, anyway?  Even in my run down community with old men sitting on their porch and grown-up 'kids' smoking outside I still wonder what happened to neighborhoods.  And I think they still exist in those disappearing small towns, and for those of us who don't have 'important' places to go, and have 'busy' as our middle name, or who are done with the work world.  As much as I despise yippie dogs, I suppose it does get the owners outside into the fresh air and meeting their neighbors.  After all, you need to know the owner's name so you can politely ask them to pick up the poop that you try to avoid each day on the way out the door.  Community gardens are becoming the 'thing' to do, and with my first attempt at gardening this past summer I hope they do spread like weeds.  For pulling weeds and sharing produce is a pretty neat commodity that allows us strangers to work along side each other and share part of life-- but still in the safe outdoors.

Hospitality and Integrity have been big themes in my life these past few weeks.  So with this blog, I'm hoping to share some of my "careful observations" (circumspection) on my thoughts on life and what I am learning.  There is sure to be some make-believe, some sappy smiles, and hopefully profound truths in these tales. Although I'm sure sometimes it will feel like I just needed to fill an episode, I hope you'll stay tuned.

"You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are." Fred Rogers

"See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Ephesians 5:15