My Heart is Light

I am forever amazed at what keeps me going.

We spent much of the last two days outdoors. On Sunday we hiked and bouldered our way across Kittatinny Ridge at Hawk Mountain, and we skiied Blue Mountain yesterday.

Astonishing that we made two major feats like these in two days. Even more amazing considering the lack of buy-in from both kids at the outset.

Yet, the kids loved the hike and the picnic on the ridge. And both took to skiing as easily as they did to swimming. And even I managed not to break anything in my first foray into the slopes.

But what has me sitting here with a silly, stupid smile on my face was something some one said. Well, it wasn't just any some one; it's some one for whom I have a great deal of love, and I know those feelings are reciprocated. And it's something that makes me laugh, because love is always something that people manage to screw up, misinterpret, read too much into, make too much out of, or otherwise despoil it.

I love my husband. He is my best friend on the planet as well as my favorite co-conspirator. I love my kids; they make me smile, and wondering after them and how their days are going is second nature to me.

And then there are certain select friends that are never far from my thoughts. I love them, too. But it always seems somewhat wrong to declare that--mostly because people tend to get the wrong idea when you use THAT word. It's almost like admission of love is like an admission of sin. Because love, I guess, is that narrowly defined. Sometimes when people say they love some one, they mean something else. Love is a convenient if not abused word that way.

But I always fall back on this:

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13 4-8)

In other words, I know it when I feel it. And there is no better feeling in the world to share.

In fact, it really does make all things possible.