Marriage

If Marriage does not teach you what love is, I do not know what will. Marriage and my relationship with my wife has taught me more about love than any other relationship. Marriage has brought my own understanding of love full circle. The intimacy of telling your spouse that you are going to spend the rest of your life together is transforming. You have chosen to love that person no matter what mood you are in or what they have done for you. I experience love more and more with Ashley each day, because I know that she chose to love me with all my flaws and imperfections. She loves me for my quirky ways and weird personality. There is so much comfort in life when you know your wife is committed to who you are. I too am committed to Ashley and love her for the same reasons. Sure we argue and I am still a stubborn human being, but being able to work through our differences together draws you closer together.

The marriage relationship and the commitment level is similar to our relationship with God. I feel as if I have a taste of the same intimacy that God wants to have with me. To be honest there is a fulfillment that comes from knowing that someone else has chosen to be with you for the rest of their life. I am proud to say that Ashley is my wife and I love her for the fact that she wants to be my wife. To know that no matter what happens to us in life, I know that she loves me.

So I ask you, What have relationships or marriage taught you about love? Have they taught you more about love or less?

Health

This Month Ashley and I have started to become more "Health Conscious". We both just decided we would like to eat better foods, fresh foods and less processed foods. I think is it pretty amazing how your body tells you what it likes and what it does not like. If you eat a lot of sweets in one night you sometimes get a stomach ache, because your body might not be able to handle all the sugars. My body loves oranges, blueberries, granola, yogurt, salad, chicken, rice, and etc. It is not that we are trying to lose weight, but more we want to give our bodies the nutrients that our bodies rely on to function better.

Exercise is another way that we bring health to our bodies. Every Sunday night Ashley and I go to a Free Beginner Yoga class. It is 75 minutes of free yoga. I cannot tell you how much I love Sunday nights now. I walk away feeling relaxed, stronger, more flexible, healthy, and I even feel a clarity of mind. I feel as if I can use that time to reflect on my life, my spirituality, my relationships, and find a peace and comfort. I was a skeptic of Yoga, but it really does challenge your body and let me tell you, beads of sweat rain off my body.

Last week Ash and I ran to the beach and back, and it was so nice to be outside and enjoy the beautiful ocean setting. A healthy and active life not only brings health physically, but also psychologically, relationally, and spiritually. Running to the beach to see the sunset can be a spiritual experience. Running to the beach can be a time of meditation and clearing the stress out of your life. Running to the beach with your wife can strengthen each others bond as you share experiences together.

So I ask you all, what are those things that you practice to bring health to your body, or your life? Do you try to drink more teas with high antioxidants? Do you take time to paint each day to help yourself relax and let go? Whatever it is you do, I hope that we all can find some ways to enjoy the simpler, more Health-Full ways of life.

Purposeful Community

I hope you all had a great holiday season. Over the break I got the opportunity to spend a couple weeks with Ashley's Family and my family. I also got the opportunity to spend time with close friends. It was so nice to connect with people and just relax, watch movies, play games, and just enjoy each others company.

In reflection I want to make sure that I make opportunities to spend time with people. Whether Ashley and I open our home to people to have dinner together, or we just meet friends for a drink. I find that my most enjoyable nights or days are full of friends spending time together. Talking about life or just acting stupid, I love when those times end up in discussions about life and you walk away challenged.

These moments cannot be created or fabricated. I believe we must purposefully position our lives to open up our homes to others, and allow for opportunities to spend time with people. I will admit that I do not always do a good job of this. I am selfish and want "My Time", and do not want to be bothered by others. When you have had a long day of work, the last thing that you want to do is come home and "host" people at your house.

I want to ask you all, should there be a balance of purposeful community, or should we always be open to commune with each other? I want to say that we should always open our home to one another, but at the same time you wonder if there needs to be some sort of balance. I would love to hear your thoughts.

My own challenge is to open my life up to others more often, and not become so settled in my own status of Life.