Bonfire smell in the air.
The rest after a long bike ride.
Pondering the sunset.
Fresh baked zucchini bread.
Walking up the driveway of a friend.
White sneakers.
Hugging for a minute straight.
Going. Just going. Together.
Smiling about where we’ve been.
Dreaming about where we’ll go.
Seeing your car on the street.
The smell of Francis 3.
Leaving the hospital parking ramp.
Laying under the maple in the backyard.
Hearing your ringtone.
Knowing without a word.
When you want to hold my hand.
Seeing a message come through from you.
Driving hours for just a few.
Toes by a waterfall.
Marshmallow guns.
When you want to tell me everything.
Snowball fights.
The way you stop when you need to.
Fireplaces.
Good mornings.
Good nights.
Bald heads.
Favorite songs on the radio.
When we both miss each other.
Brown chairs and green couches.
Vacuumed carpet.
Sprinklers.
Wave pools.
Sunglasses and jean shorts.
Rainstorms.
Your real smile when it’s just us two.

(of my favorite things.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Rzc11HeJ0&feature=channel_video_title

…because love wins.

“Never leave,” your eyes told me as you sat next to me on this dock listening to the waves move over our toes. We said very little, but the wind covered all the things we would have needed to. The sun warmed our skin all the way to our hearts, and you reached over and just laid your head on my shoulder. We just gazed upon the same Love of our lives. Here, together, we rested. We found ourselves in the shelter of the wings of the One greater than we. I laid down, and the sky became my canvas for imagination. I looked at you and said, “Yeah. Never.”

You’re on my heart and mind even today as I sit here. Breathe with me.

I wonder what it’s like where you are. Do you think about me as often as I, you? Are you moved? Are you breaking? Are you alive and dreaming, or are you wanting something else? Do you listen to the silence, or do you speak too much? Are you giving yourself away, or are you holding onto all that you’ve ever known? Are you climbing mountains and letting words be as sweet as honeycomb? Are you learning the value of every moment? What’s your smile look like?

Can we sit down together and talk for a while?

I’d like to think that we’re always together. That when we reach a hand out to the One that we love most, we hold each other’s hands as well. There are no miles that conquer love, for love is not of this world, just as we were not created for this world.

We’ve got forever together.

Don’t worry.

…because love wins.

1. Dwell on things that happened in the past.
2. Obsess yourself with all the things that might happen in the future.
3. Complain about problems instead of taking the necessary steps to resolve them.
4. Fear change and resist it.
5. Work hard, do your best and then condemn yourself for not achieving perfection.
6. Belittle yourself.
7. Hang out with other people who belittle you.
8. Try to control everything and then worry about the things you can’t control.
9. Lie to yourself and those around you.
10. Keep doing the same thing over and over again.
11. Be lazy and follow the path of least resistance.
12. Hold onto anger.  Never forgive anyone.
13. Always be right.  Never let anyone else be more right than you.
14. Compare yourself unfavorably to those who you feel are more successful.
15. Let small issues snowball into big problems.
16. Never learn anything new.
17. Never take responsibility for your own actions.
18. Blame everyone around you.
19. Don’t ask for directions and don’t ask questions.
20. Don’t let anyone help you.
21. Quit when the going gets tough.
22. Be suspicious.  Trust no one.
23. Get four hours of sleep every night and convince yourself that it’s enough.
24. Never throw anything way.  Even if you don’t use it, hold onto it.
25. Say “yes” to everyone.  Fill all your time with commitments.
26. Try to be everyone’s friend.
27. Multitask, multitask, multitask!  Do everything at once.
28. Never spend any time alone.
29. Don’t help others unless you have to.  Do only the things that benefit you directly.
30. Hang out with people who complain about everything.
31. Focus on what you don’t want to happen.
32. Fear the things you don’t fully understand.
33. Always seek external validation before you consider yourself good enough.
34. Take everything and everyone in life seriously.
35. Spend your life working in a career field you aren’t passionate about.
36. Focus on the problems.
37. Think about all the things you don’t have.
38. Read or watch lots of depressing news from broadcast media.
39. Set lofty goals for yourself and never do anything to achieve them.
40. Never exercise.
41. Only eat junk food and fried food.
42. Never check-up on your health.
43. Setup your lifestyle so it revolves around money.
44. Spend more than you earn and rack up lots of financial debt.
45. Don’t say what you mean.  Don’t mean what you say.
46. Frown.
47. Never tell anyone how you feel or what you’re thinking.
48. Make sure everything you do impresses someone else.
49. Always put your own needs on the back burner.
50. Get involved in other people problems and make them your own.
51. Make others feel bad about themselves.
52. Watch TV for several hours every day.
53. Gamble often.
54. Stay in the same place.  Don’t travel.
55. Don’t play, just work.
56. Let your hobbies go.
57. Let your close relationships go.
58. Never finish what you start.
59. Take everything personally.
60. Do lots of drugs.  Drink lots of alcohol.
61. Never say, “I’m sorry.”  Never say, “I love you.”
62. Don’t work hard at anything.
63. Always wait until the last minute.
64. Believe that, no matter what, you are entitled to things.
65. Let others make decisions for you.
66. Remember the insults.  Forget the compliments.
67. Let it all bottle up inside.
68. Rely on others for everything.
69. Fail to plan.
70. Don’t dream.
71. Don’t think about the future at all.
72. Always disregard other people’s opinions and suggestions.
73. Make promises you can’t keep.
74. Don’t decide on anything, ever.
75. Just keep going and going and going.  And never ever stop.
76. Speak first, and a lot. Never listen first.
77. Never pray.

What will you do today? Don’t think about it. Do it. Live now.

…because love wins.

This love that we think we know is so much bigger than you or me.
This love that we think we know is so much richer than anything we’ve ever seen.
This love that we think we know is so much more alive than we’ve ever been.
This love that we think we know is so much more given than we accept.
This love that we think we know is nothing compared to the real love that is.

Let it go. Let it hold. Let it be.

…because love wins.

Why are you downcast little soul? Have you forgotten? You haven’t. You hold onto so much more. And, you are so special to Him. There’s a Kingdom greater than all things, and there’s a heart that’s bigger than all those that broke yours before. The answers are taken care of, and the places you’ll go are more than laid before you. Just hold on. Don’t give up. Smile even when you don’t want to. You’re so already more mended than you know. And there will never be anything that He won’t do for you. He knows. The past, the present, and most specifically, the now. Trust Him at that. This too, shall pass.

Promise.

…because love wins.

Love is:

Patient.
Kind.
Without envy.
Not proud.
Not rude.
Not self-seeking.
Not easily angered.
Unable to keep record of wrongs.
Unable to delight in evil.
Full of rejoicing with Truth.

Love:

Always protects.
Always trusts.
Always hopes.
Always perseveres.

Never fails.

…because love wins.

The fire’s crackling. We’re 64 and 62 respectively. The snow is soft, and we’re just here. All walls down. All hands resting. All hearts at peace.

The silence that we’ve known for nearly 40 years now is welcome here. It’s a language we speak well. My mind shoots back to a night in the solarium. You with those dumb headphones on, and adding comments to my tired self trying to speak. I’ve always been the youngest one, and never had anyone who looked up to me to grow up with. But, we grew up there. Our eyes always said the most when it came down to what we needed to say to each other. It’s no different now. When we needed someone to just sit and whisper something with their existence, and when we wanted to be alone, and when we needed someone to say the thing that wasn’t what we wanted to hear, but always what we wanted to hear, that’s what we were for. It’s the same. But some things are so different. You’re more alive than you were then. You’ve shared words and been ripped apart. You’ve watched people die and people live not in the earthly sense, but that too. You carry yourself confidently, and you are so captivated by a Jesus that the world hasn’t even heard the voice of, to a point that you cannot even bear the idea of saying “no” to Him.

I laugh. I mean it. You laugh. You mean it.

A sparkle almost flows from all the things that move out in understanding around us. Wherever two or more of you are gathered, Jesus is. Yeah, that’s this.

The night passes, with the conversation moving from adventures to lines of people that we don’t even need to finish the names of to understand what is being spoken about. And, I realize why you changed my life again. Over and over again, people told me that they wanted to be with me and I didn’t understand why. But the day I shook your hand, I realized that I wasn’t alone. You understand so much more than you’ll let yourself. You’re so much bolder than you know.

And, my eyes, teary at this point sparkle in the firelight as you say to me: “Just say it,” not even looking at me.

“Thank you, for letting me watch you become.”

That’s what I see every day. You becoming all that you should be. You realizing the hope that’s alive in you.

That real love isn’t even ours. That real love drips blood of white, and keeps us together forever.

I love you.

…because love wins.