When I was young and fleeing an uncomfortable home I would seek sanctuary in the woods where the trees deep rooted calm would fill me with peace. Now as an elder I am privileged and grateful to be able to live and walk among them -receiving their peace and daily joyful offerings.
Love for me is not always about freedom. It is so much more. It can be about suffering. It can be about serving. It can be about Being there for someone. . .honor and cherish are big concepts that ideally can be associated with marriage/ Love. Sharing and growing together through fifty years of Life has certainly had its ups and downs: times of feeling the Love and times of not. Times of giving/being the Love and times of not. I have friends who are married and friends who are not and we all experience fulfillment as well as loneliness. I feel it is in the giving as well as the receiving that Love grows in us ... within and without marriage ... Marriage for me means giving each other room to grow into our best selves.
On Sep 12, 2023 River wrote on The Practice Before The Practice, by Mark Nepo: