Love is and isn't...

"Love, Love, Love--all the wretched cant of it, masking egotism, lust, masochism, fantasy under a mythology of sentimental postures, a welter of self induced miseries and joys, blinding and masking the essential personalities in the frozen gestures of courtship, in the kissing and the dating and the desire, the compliments and the quarrels which vivify its barrenness." --Germaine Greer

I am in love. Not in love like I thought being in love was, but in LOVE. I know this is the person I will stay with as long as God allows and I am so happy with that. Everything that has ever been lacking in all of those other attempts at love...either they were too selfish, too immature, too closed-minded, too reckless, too conservative, not compassionate enough, too this or not enough of that...Mike is none of these things. In my mind, he is everything I've always looked for. His is kind, intelligent, open-minded, ambitious, strong-emotionally, mentally, and physically. He loves animals and he is kind to my family. I never for an instant lose faith in his devotion to me. I am just as devoted to him. We are not perfect people. We argue, we are grumpy, we have our bitter moments...but I am content in knowing I will spend my life with him and I can trust him to always be there and vice versa.

I can't begin to describe this feeling to someone who's never experienced it. If someone would have described it to me before, I wouldn't have been able to fathom it. This is that thing that Isa told me about old couples...I remember, and I understand now.