falling in love.

at the threshold of marriage i panicked, just a little. worried that i might never have the "newness" of a blooming love again. i thrive on "newness."

so many relationships crumble when the craving for the unaccustomed comes creeping.

we love "falling in love." and that's okay.

amazingly, i've found i still fall frequently in love.

i delight in sights never before seen along the paths we often travel. i fall for the change in light and sound and smell of my life.

new feelings ignite as i watch my husband grow as a man.

there are few who would feel comfortably justified in comparing their spouse to another person- we know that's not conducive to closeness in couples. but do we compare them to who they once were? knowing how we each change through time and experience, is that unlike measuring one man against another?

"eighteen me" was perky and optimistic. romantic and well groomed. but, boy did she have faults. i'd be saddened if i thought my husband was still in love with the girl i was. i am not that girl. he loves me now because he's fallen for now-me.

so we can often fall in love with the human sharing our life, because that person becomes "new" in small ways each moment.

my goodness, i can't ever feel too comfortable in my relationship with my children. i love them with a new and greater love every day.

give your heart away to a baby. then just you try and have a predictable, boring bond.

duke and i took our children along with the three girls i tend on a picnic. they ran ahead in merriment and duke said, "i love these girls." it was strange to hear this from him because he typically distances himself from children who are not our own. in the past he's jokingly stated that it's easy for him to love kids, so long as they're his.

yes, new love is all around us.
to experience unfamiliar love we can keep our hearts small and change the person that occupies the space therein.

OR we can grow our hearts, making room for the many new, loving relationships God hopes to give.

each day i'm falling in love with life, with the people who've come into my life, and with the Creator who has so deeply blessed us all by sending us here.