Happy March, y’all! Lucy figured out about St. Patrick’s Day, and was just sure that we needed shamrocks now that it was March. 
She saw them at someone else’s house–they do Christmas in China, but not St. Patrick’s Day.
I thought I should do another “Blessings and Stories” post; so, keeping the Valentine’s Day theme (because March is not May), I did one I wrote about love.
When I was little I came to the conclusion that we would be happier if we didn’t lose our hearts to stuff. I realized that if there wasn’t anything I didn’t want broken or lost, and I knew I would go to heaven, I would have no problems. No worries. Zero.
But there was a hitch: people. If there were people in you life that you loved, you would worry about them. Even if you knew they were going to heaven, you would worry about them–and you don’t. Sometimes you just don’t know.
And try as I might I couldn’t get past that. I knew it was important to love people–I wasn’t giving up on that. But loving is problematic. It’s dangerous, and it’s inconvenient.
I remember a time when two of my friends weren’t getting along, and I felt stuck in the middle of it; and when I told my mom about it she explained that if you lived all alone on an island you would be lonely, but life would be easier. ‘Cause relationships are messy. Very messy.
Recently we re-watched The Princess Bride. It’s a good movie; entertaining and funny, but it’s morals are “off”. And there’s this theme in it that if you love someone hard enough then neither of you can die. Which is absurd.
It makes love practical. And love is not.
Oh, and love is not a feeling. Whatever anyone says. It’s not a wishy-woshy sensation that makes you go light-headed whenever someone walks into the room. It’s a choice. And a hard one sometimes.
Love is not practical. It doesn’t make things perfect. It will wreck your life. And resurrect it again. Because God is love, and Jesus will wreck you life, and then bring it back together again–exactly what happened to HIM when HE loved us.
I love the quote from the movie Frozen: “Love is putting someone else’s needs before you own.” Because that’s a choice. And you rarely feel like putting someone else first.
I wrote on my blog recently: “I’m in love. And that’s dangerous, because when you truly love someone you are willing to do anything for them.”
I liked the quote from the Rend Collective song The Cost: “Real love is not afraid to bleed.”
Love is patient. Love is kind.
But love is courageous.