Samson and Olayide. The humans that made me.
They've been in love for 30 something years. Married for 28 of those as of the 9th of February.
No words can describe the extent to which I am indebted to them. I owe them my life (in the most literal sense possible).
I've never doubted the existence of true love because I get to see it in them every single day. Theirs is not the perfect union (there is no such thing). I've seen them fight, I've seen them struggle to extend grace to the other and I've seen them dislike each other more than they like each other. I've also seen them resolve that theirs is a love worth having. I've watched them forgive one another, I watched them lean on each other and grow their love as a result of each challenge. Theirs is a love that has brought so much life and light to the world.
This week is the commercial week of love. The shops are filled with roses of every variety, cards in every hue of pink and red you can imagine and chocolates of every size contorted into heart shapes. It's easy to get wrapped up in the buying and receiving (and if you're not doing either, to get caught up in reality of aloneness) that you take for granted the presence of love.
Love deserves to be acknowledged and celebrated. I'm learning that it's no easy feat to love someone for a month, a year, 10 years or 28 years! If you've managed it, then CELEBRATE it! Not just when the calendar calls for it, but in the mundane acts of the everyday - in the waking up and choosing to believe that yours is a love worth keeping.
To my single hearts (MY PEOPLE), let us remember - we are LOVERS too.
Lovers of parents
Lovers of family
Lovers of friends
Lovers of pets
We may not have found our own romantic love yet but each new day we get to be with OUR PEOPLE - we are living our own love story.
So, let all the lovers of every variety celebrate the loves in our life this week, and every other we are gifted.
S.
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