Lemonade

Today is a cold day in New York.  I am here with the youth group on a ski trip.  It is ideal; for most of us. The skiers are in paradise, but only after standing in line to get tickets and rentals.  The ones that don't ski are swimming, but only after some debate as to what to do in this winter wonderland that doesn't involve strapping something to your feet.  One of us has a stomach virus, but is doing her best to keep a smile and avoid food.  I have a torn hamstring so I have a choice to either watch the skiers with my nose pushed up against the glass and whimper or blog, shop and go to the weight room.  My choice is obvious.

It occurs to me that often life is less than ideal.  Often television portrays such a romanticized version of life that we fall in to deep depression when our life does not turn out like it does on tv.  We don't have the house, the car, the clothes or the friends that our tv heroes have. We expect the same of love.  We see these romances that are beautiful and lovely, passionate and picture perfect, but love is not that way.. . .in the real world.  Love is stepping out of yourself to give to the other, and they do the same for you.  Love is more.  Love is more than flowers and candy.  Love is more than hopping in to bed.  Love is more than having a picnic in a field of wild flowers.  Love is praying for each other as they dive into their day.  Love is listening before offering an opinion.  Love is not trying to fix, but allowing to heal.  Love is covering them with a blanket when they fall asleep in the chair or offering to take this leg of the carpool because it's really snowing.
That is the kind of love that sometimes takes your breathe away but more often than not, allows you to catch your breath.

Yesterday we celebrated Valentine's Day.  Saint Valentine was a martyr because he believed in love, real love, true love, lasting love.  He performed Christian marriages even after the Romans forbade it.  His weddings were not ideal.  His life was not ideal.  But he took what he had, and made the most of it, enriching as many lives as he could.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  When life gives you snow, ski.  And when life gives you love, breathe it in and be glad that it is imperfectly real.