All You Need is Love

I'd like to preface this post by saying that I am far from an expert on love, but this is what I believe.

Tomorrow my parents celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary and I marvel at the fact that two people could spend that much time together.

I believe love stories should be epic. They should scream from the rooftops, be loud and bold, and most of all they should be fated. I believe in destiny, and I think love is written in the stars (not literally, obviously)

My grandparent's met on a train to London when they were teenagers. My Grandmother's friend, who knew her at the time said they were sickening and only had eyes for each other. When they were in a room together, no one else existed.

When my parent's met my Dad was married to someone else. They met while working at the same company, my Mum was the secretary for my Dad's boss. My Dad and his first wife were going through a separation at the time when they met. When his wife asked if he'd take her back he said no, he was in love with someone else. They have traveled the world together, shared horrific experiences together, put up with two infuriating children together and are still sickeningly in love.

This is how love stories should be. That's not to say they should be easy, far from it, but I don't think they should be too hard. Throughout human history stories of eternal love have filtered down through every age be it from Greek mythology, Shakespeare, Austen, Fitzgerald and Fielding and far from finding these accounts of love ludicrous or hard to believe, we spend our entire lives hoping to live through one ourselves.

In these days of speed dating and bar crawls, love often gets sidelined. It has become a game, flitting from one person to the next, staying with someone unworthy for fear of being alone, ignoring what's right in front of you because of fear. Love has turned into an industry of charts and analysis, compatibility tests and websites. As the world has gotten smaller we all seem to have moved farther apart.

As a hopeless romantic and total skeptic (OK, so I'm complicated.) I believe in the story. I believe that anything is possible and that a chance meeting can change your life. I believe in love at first site and love eternal. I believe that there are two halves to every soul, and that only one person can fill that chasm. I believe that one day, whether I'm 26 of 78, I to will find love and most of all I believe that people who have been together 28 years (or longer) have got to be doing something right.

To quote the Beatles "All you need if love"

Happy Anniversary Mum and Dad xoxoxo