Tuesday, April 29, 2008

The Other Shoe

The Other Shoe, 4/27/08

In recognition of this beautiful man and marriage with which I have been blessed, I will not squander, flaunt and take it for granted.
Nor will I be afraid of its loss, limiting our potential by fear.

I will be ever-so grateful!
And I will show my humility by endeavoring to support a path of service,
love,
sacrifice,
happiness,
good,
strength,
growth,
beauty,
kindness,
consultation,
patience,
mercy,
honesty...

We will be a "fortress of well-being."
A stronghold of good.
A home.

We must be happy, despite any difficulty.

I love you, Alex, mi amor. And I thank God for you in my life. May we bring happiness to others. May we bring a smile to 'Abdu'l-Baha's face.

_______________
This is a journal entry from a few days ago (gasp!). Yes, I am making it public. :)

Sometimes I find myself worrying. I worry over Alex's and my long drives to see each other, or what the doctor might say about some weird symptom...or whatever else I cannot, don't want to, imagine. When one finds happiness, I think it is natural to feel like at any moment the other shoe could drop. I'm not a fan of that mentality, though. What good does it really do? Nonetheless, I still feel it sometimes.

I've also found myself fearing my own lack of appreciation. I wonder if I am grateful enough; if my insufficient recognition of the wonderful things in my life could take them away from me.

Alex and I talked of these concerns a few times in the weeks before our wedding. "What if our test is to lose this?"

A few days before the wedding, Alex's mom told us of a dream she had had (which she can also tell much more accurately). She saw Alex and I, and our family generations ahead. She sensed that so long as our family's goals were always, always, always centered around service to God and humanity, we would enjoy happy marriages, long lives, health, and prosperity.

That sounds great, no?! Well, there's still the whole "so long as our family's goals are always, always, always centered around service to God and humanity thing." Whew. That's hard work!

...yup.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tia,

I don't know if you remember me, but you were my best friend before you moved to Oregon. When you moved, I gave you a snoopy and your sister a blanket. I hope that's enough information to identify me (I don't use my real name where google can see it.) Anyway, my mom found your blog and sent me a link to it. It's strange seeing pictures of you grown up. You're still like four or five in my head.

Congratulations on getting married and stuff. I see you're still a Bahá'í. That's really cool. I'm pioneering in europe. I love it here.

Anyway, you can e-mail me if you want (where I will use my real name). pthalogreen at livejournal dot com.

Anonymous said...

Hey Tia! It's Erin from your teaching trip to MT...remember me? Congrats on getting married...I loved to see your wedding pics. Are you really in Tukwila now?? I work in Renton...maybe we can get together for a coffee or something. My email is erin_joon@yahoo.com