Warriorship

“Take. a. deep. breath,” my groom says as he inhales great rushes of air between each word. No where on earth have either of us found air as pure or fresh as the air we breathe in this North Country. It is as if all the breath of heaven is stored here in a warehouse that is formed out of leafed trees and ancient earth. The upper edge of the Adirondack mountains is our home for a while and this place is a gift.

We cannot be outdoors enough. The windows and doors in our cabin never close. We linger during daily walks to pause by streams, wildflowers, deer tracks, and wooded playgrounds. “This is where I’ll create a swimming hole,” and “Here are the flowers I’ll pick for your birthday bouquet,” and “I wonder how many bears roam about” are phrases spoken between us for the first time. My favorite he recently said, ”Is that a Bob White or a speckled grouse?” still makes me chuckle inside to think my handsomely strong, sports-focused husband not only sees these creatures but knows their names with as much familiarity as his own. This is a delightful surprise in our continuing getting-to-know-you marital state.

Perhaps it is to be expected that even with nature’s beauty around us, we struggle at times to see the beauty in each other as precious, divinely-formed creations. Our tendency to spew the occasional boorish and spiteful word mars the landscape of the heart like strip-mining did the Appalachians. Marriage is hard work and we are working to know and understand each other. Our greatest upcoming challenge will be to determine if we can go beyond a superficial level of comprehension to a deeper, more intimate application of a sacrificial love to our union. For many others this challenge has proved to be too much. It may be the case for us as well. However, it is not too much for the One For Whom Nothing Is Impossible. He takes delight to paint the sky for us, to clothe the spruce with feathery boas, and kiss the lupine bloom with dew. He is here. We must remember. Breathe.

-Susan (of the Wildflowers)

Ps 103:1