Day 2: One Tree

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."

-St. Augustine

St. Augustine writes of love and being in love. There is a difference. Love is not the passionate, lustful, fleeting moments in life. It is lasting. It is finding something great in someone else each day. It is the moments when "you coulda gone with Romeo; But you let him go; And you stayed with me instead."

Our lives are full of moments of decision. Do we go with the popular decision, or do we follow our heart? I was talking with someone the other night and recounting a conversation I had with someone else. It was my Jane Austin moment of the week. In not so many words I told the person that they wouldn't be able to make me happy, and I wouldn't be able to make them happy either. We were too different and on my side I didn't feel the connections I am looking for.

This person then said, "Well then, I don't understand why you choose to date me." Sometimes we don't understand our decisions. We make them and move forward hoping. Hoping for what you might ask? I'm not sure yet. Maybe I am waiting to see from them in life what I have seen they can be in my heart. 

This morning, however, I read this quote and it had to be the one I shared. I also randomly found this song. One seemed to be the perfect beginning talking about coming together as one through the storms and fires of life; and this song seems to sum up how that is done: We grow to truly love people by finding 'beautiful' things in them.

Love is not purely physical. It is not found in lust. Robert Frost wrote:

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.

In Proverbs we further read, "Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?"

True love is found in the quiet moments of life. Elder Neil A. Maxwell said, "You should get just as much pleasure washing the dishes and cleaning the house as you do being in bed with your wife." It is the connection Danny and Annie gained through 27 years of marriage.

Our hearts will become open as we seek for beautiful things every day. The Savior of the world loved unconditionally. So much so that He descended to the earth, gave us an example to follow, suffered the agonies of our sins and afflictions, gave his life for us, and took it up again. It is in having a heart like His that we will come to understand the beginning of what it means to love.