Part 3: On living love.

Need some context? Check out Part 1 and Part 2.

And we survived engagement--and it was crazy, and we had our moments, but we kept going, because we love each other.

And then it was Wedding Day--and it was perfect, and I cried and he cried and we left together, hand in hand, because we love each other.

And now we are newlyweds--and we are starry-eyed and crazy about each other and it is easy to ignore faults and say I'm sorry and look ahead together, because we love each other.

And I look around and sometimes think How can this last? or Will it start to fade? or I wonder what he'll think of me ten years from now... and sometimes it is scary.

Because there are no guarantees. No How To's. No These Five Steps Provide Absolute Marital Bliss (even though bookstores are covered with titles that claim otherwise). Not even loved ones who have all the answers.

This is real life. Our life. And it is very much unscripted.

And look around! Sure, there are stories upon stories about boy-meeting-girl and all the romantic giggliness that follows...but so many of those end in heartbreak. Because marriage is hard. Love fails. People get bored. And do stupid things. And if they do that, you do this because you have to watch your back. So just enjoy the season and when it's time, let it go. Or so society seems to say.

We are obsessed with failing couples. We excuse our broken vows. We applaud those who Have the Courage to Stand Up for Themselves.

But who is standing up for Love?

And who is saying I said I will and I will and you will and hey, yeah, we will fight and not like each other and we will each make so many mistakes.

And it will probably get hard and then even harder and maybe one day we won't even know who we are anymore. And it won't feel awesome.

And Anything Else will look easier.

But we will have a choice.

Because no matter what is going on around us or how Hollywood decides to define love, we aren't These People or Those People or even Those People over there.

It is just you and me and a journey of learning to live out the words we had read that day--words that may be tired but no less true.

Words we will spend our lives exploring, defending, protecting, celebrating.

Because we love each other.

Because we made a promise.

Because our journey has just begun.