Just spent an Aaaaamazing, extra-long weekend with my favorite person on this planet, up in Canada! We were celebrating our 17th wedding anni (how are we that old?!), and had the best time ever. I love spending time with him; it doesn’t matter what we do, or where we go, I just love being with him. He makes everything better, richer, funnier, special-er…. Sometimes I can’t believe how much I love that man of mine! I truly never thought it possible to love someone so much, and somehow I manage to love him even more, as time passes. I know there probably aren’t many people out there that genuinely feel this way about their spouses on a daily basis, which makes me treasure and hold our relationship even more dearly. I do truly treasure it, I treasure him. And thank my Heavenly Father for giving him to me.

So. While we were in Whistler, living a slow, leisurely life, I was suddenly, vividly aware and mindful of how varied and full life is – filled with beautiful, tragic, chaotic. There was “us,” in our shiny, cozy, kidless, love-slow bubble, celebrating our 17-year milestone, smiling and giving encouraging words to an exhausted Australian mama, rocking her fussy toddler in a stroller, while gently swaying her baby strapped to her chest on our elevator. We remember those days. Those beautiful, so busy just-keeping-littles-alive days that it was almost impossible to look up and see…. anything…. else. We felt warmed remembering that precious, exhausting phase, and grateful for the “easier,” but busier (in the sense that we’re actually doing stuff, besides solely keeping tiny humans alive) phase that we find ourselves in now. And then our hearts ripping into pieces for a friend whose 3-year-old daughter took a turn for the worse this past weekend, in her year-long battle with cancer…. I used to compartmentalize life into slots: this part is good, this is hard, this is fun, this is heinous, this is sublime…. but life isn’t made like that – all neatly separated. It’s all blended up in one brutal, amazing recipe. To try and separate one ingredient would be impossible, and wouldn’t be… Life. And all it fully is. I’ve learned that it’s the hard, the heart-ripping parts that make the Good all the more dear, and steer us closer to Christ, if we wisely choose to let them. Holding tightly to that, and the Hope we all have through Jesus Christ – my personal Savior.

And with that said (I had a lot on my heart this morning!), here’s me, with a couple of precious monkeys that I happen to hold very dear….