choices.

With all of the wedding bells ringing around me, I figured today was a good day to talk about love.
Love is the single hardest thing you're ever going to do in your life. It's not made out of sunshine and cuddles.
Love is turning around and coming back home when the only thing you want to do is run forever.
Love is subjugating yourself to the needs of another person, always above and beyond your own needs
Love is easy to fall into and hard to stick with.
Love is sending messages that you know the other person will never send back, just because you want them to know that you're thinking of them.
Sometimes love is something small. Folding laundry. Fetching a soda pop. Rubbing a shoulder. Being an alarm clock.
Sometimes love is something huge. Surrendering yourself, sacrificing your time and your sweat and your blood and your tears to better the lot of your loved one, dying to save them.

But in all things,
you must remember:
Love is a Choice.

Your fuzzy feelings are going to fade. The sweet summer picnics are going to stop. There will be plenty of evenings where you sleep alone and empty. And even then, you have to choose this love. You have to be willing to love someone even when it's not rewarding, even when all you want to do is strike out at them, even when it hurts you to love them.
So choose wisely.

And once you've chosen, talk to them, all of the time. Keep no secrets, even your shameful ones, because your lover will surprise you with their understanding. Make your choice to love them at the beginning of each day. Find something to adore at the sunset. Because love is a choice, you can push through the darkness and create new moments of sunshine and cuddles, and even in the darkness you can find joy in knowing that you love truly, and not only at the hours that it is easy to love in.
Once you choose to love, you must also be faithful to that choice. You have to make that choice every day, for the rest of your life. That's what it means to be committed.
You can throw away paper plates, and you can microwave your burritos, but you cannot throw away love. You cannot inspire heat over a thirty second period. Your disposable lifestyle must be checked at the door to your love life.
You must choose.