August

I never really planned my wedding up until I was engaged. I didn't clip pictures of brides out of magazines. I didn't fantasize about my diamond ring. I didn't know wedding colors were a thing until I was 19 years old. So, of course, I never really thought about what time of the year would be a good time to get married. I guess there is really no wrong time. As long as it's with the right person.

Two and a half years ago, we decided on the date of August 5th.

August has always been a meaningful month to me. It's a month that symbolizes the end of something and the start of something new. Often times, that ending was summer vacation which meant the start of a new school year.

When I got married it was the end of being single and selfish. Two years ago, August was the start of something very new for me: marriage.

The past two years have been filled with happy moments but they've also had their fill of ugly moments. I just focus on and broadcast those happy ones more often. Marriage is hard. Sometimes it hurts. But I also believe it can be the most rewarding and strengthening thing in this entire world. It's a lot of learning and stumbling, and that's good.

So hello, August. Let's celebrate new beginnings, whatever those may be.

On Imagination

my mountains 

"And you must tell the child the legends I told you--as my mother told them to me and her mother to her. You must tell the fairy tales of the old country. You must tell of those not of the earth who live forever in the hearts of people--fairies, elves, dwarfs, and such. Oh, and you must not forget the Kris Kringle. The child must believe in him until she reaches the age of six."

"Mother, I know there are no ghosts or fairies. I would be teaching the child foolish lies."

Mary spoke sharply. "You do not know whether there are not ghosts on earth or angels in heaven."

"I know there is no Santa Claus."

"Yet you must teach the child that these things are so."

"Why? When I, myself, do not believe?"

Because," explained Mary Rommely simply, "the child must have a valuable thing which is called imagination. The child must have a secret world in which live things that never were. It is necessary that she believe. Then when the world becomes too ugly for living in, the child can reach back and live in her imagination."

   -excerpt from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn