On the Eve of New Year's Eve...

Been a while...

Tonight, on the eve of New Year's Eve, there is one thing on my mind and that is...LOVE. A word that has been rendered meaningless over time. For each person has their own definition of love and uses it interchangeably with other words, such as, like ( as in I love those shoes), prefer (I love my Science class and I hate English), affection, attachment, obsession, and the list goes on and on. All that being said, LOVE is still here...it is still around and I do not see it going away any time soon.

Here is why I think LOVE will be around for years to come (or as they say in the fairy tales, why "love will last forever"). Anyone who has ever been in a long-term, committed relationship with someone else cannot deny that there is this essence, this esoteric "something"....or to be fancy, this "je ne sais quoi" that exists to bind people together despite seemingly insurmountable odds. Think about it. How do two individuals (in some cultures, more than two) with completely different backgrounds, sets of experiences, expectations, temperaments, inherited and learned traits and patterns of behaviors, drives, motivations, etc. come together and make it work? How does that happen?! Even people who come from the same kind of general background, socioeconomic status, education, religious affiliation, etc., are, still, immeasurably different from each other. Consider how unalike brothers and sisters can be. But, despite all the variance and innumerable possibilities, two come together and try to establish some kind of meaningful relationship with one another.

Even in serious, committed relationships that have "ended"...they never really end, there remains a "something" left behind, something that either part of the broken pair are never really quite able to shake or let go of.

But what is it? What is it that makes us try to do the impossible? What, when things get bumpy, or when there are misunderstandings, or when someone is feeling neglected or someone else is just plain hurt, what brings us past these points in our relationships? What makes us say, I CHOOSE you over fear of disappointment, I CHOOSE you over resentment and bitterness, I CHOOSE you even when I do not understand you, I CHOOSE to trust you even when I am most vulnerable, I CHOOSE you even when, even when, even when.....(fill in the blank)

To take the good, the bad, the everything....To love someone and to continue to TRUST that its going to all work out NO MATTER WHAT, to wake up EVERY morning and EVERY morning be thankful that you get to spend your life with this someone...to still be thankful even when , even when...

Not everyone makes it work, but some do. Some survive...holding on by just a thread, some thrive. How? What makes this possible? There is no name for it and so we give it a name....it may not be LOVE, but that is what we call it. That is how we identify this "something" that makes a miracle possible.

Miracles do not come cheap, though. Nor are they guaranteed. They must not be taken for granted. EVERY DAY, see it, see your miracle...appreciate it..marvel at it and give thanks...even when...

And no one can tell you how to make YOUR miracle work. Outside advice or counsel can provide information, perspective, etc. but at the end of the day it is YOU and THE OTHER PERSON and that is all. It may not make sense to anybody else in the world...it may not even make complete sense to you...but it still works and why? The miracle...LOVE.

To end the year with LOVE on my mind, I think is good. To begin the new one with it? Even better. Now....to tend to, protect, and fight (with sword and shield) for my miracle....