For Oh, So Many Ways We Didn’t Dream (That Love Would Be)

Happy Valentine's Day!!💘But, as I type this greetingmy heart aches for those who, from our vantagepointseem to have their love stories cut short far too soon! It reminds me to humbly treasure the measure of Today and all its opportunities to 'love one another'! A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another. And so worth every prick of thorn to marvel at the rose... Love is full of surprises, no matter what age we reachAlways so many new lessons it seems, still left to teachFor Love is a like a tutor, often testing you and meWith oh, so many ways we didn’t dream that love would beNo respecter of rank or race, or ‘reason-right’ retortLove is patient and kind; all other replies fall far shortThus, we learn to adjust the dust-scaffold of darling dreamsBecause we are all subject to the laws that love esteems Love is a lifelong (not a once-and-done) ladder we climbAs faithfulness fulfills its calling one step at a timeNo easy-out, no masquerade, no detour to the prizeLove vexes Best of Dreamers with Lessons in Compromise‘I’m sorry, dear, your favorite jeans are laundered but still wet’‘Honey, why do you toss the keys, who-knows-where, then forget’And why are we so stubborn in love’s sudden tug-of-warsInstead of letting love be strong enough to settle scores There is no finer splendor than love, weathered by its tollLove, such a tender mender of the wounds of heart and soulAnd so worth every effort dressed in plain workaday clothesAnd so worth every prick of thorn to marvel at the roseAnd so worth every task, that, without love would drive us madAnd so worth every up and down that we have ever hadAnd so worth every sacrifice, to safeguard vows we madeAnd recognize the precious bloom of ‘Now’ that soon will fade Love crowns the commonplace with words like ‘friend’ and ‘family’It treasures every day rife with fresh opportunityIt does not envy, does not boast, it is not proud or rudeAnd often reaps an awed reward of humble gratitudeWhere, in the aftermath of stumbles we begin to learn(In the light of God’s mercy,) love is not something we earnBut, because of its Author, love befits us faithfullyFor oh, so many ways we didn’t dream that love would be © Janet Martin The Vows Scene in the movieHolds great reminders for all of usloving/living out our own journeys of 'for better or worse till death doth part' Are you wearing red?Asked Jim when he called this morning... No. I replied, but I'm wearing fuzzy pink pjs with hearts on themif that counts for something😂😂😍💗 (You know the ones I mean, ladies, right?!Completely comfy but not much in the line of attractiveness??) As we chatted about life's Glorious Ordinary,plus a few extra ups and downstoday's poem gathered steam!!As youth sheds its green and then middle-age, its goldsomething far more preciousthan first meets the eye, begins to unfold... I will try to unearth something red to wear fora very special dinner tonight, (no matter what is served at our kitchen table )because Jim, most often gone on Valentine's Day, is planning to be home tonight! 1 Cor.13 (My Favourite Love Poem) Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body []to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not []puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, []thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is []perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.