Love

Last night, Steve and I sat around a pit fire with a group of friends in Upland. As twilight grew and the fire burned brighter, our conversation shifted to talking about love and dating. We laughed at each others’ funny relationship stories, wondered about love lost, and talked about finding The One.

It got me thinking about what being in love means. I only dated one other guy before Steve, and even though our relationship was short – only five or six months – and I was young (18), I’m pretty sure I thought I was in love. But I think that was the only words I had to explain it. Now, of course, I have the benefit of seven years of marriage that have given me a fuller picture of what love really means. (And I’m sure in 50 years I’ll look back on me now and be like, “Pshaw! Did I really think I knew what love was!?”)  But at the time, I think I really thought I had fallen in love.

But here’s the thing: I think love is a choice. I choose to love Steve, and I choose to act lovingly towards him. And beyond marriage – I can choose to treat people with love and respect…or I can choose to be selfish.

So when we talk about “falling in love” – where does that fit in? That denotes that you couldn’t help it; it was a visceral reaction. Maybe it’s a way of explaining the mystery of love, maybe with just a shadow of the wonder of Christ’s love for us.

At church last week, my pastor talked about the church being the bride of Christ. Absolutely amazing imagery, and as he went through various common wedding traditions, explaining how they relate back to the picture of Christ as the Bridegroom, I was constantly going back and forth between tears of gratitude for Christ’s love, and cynical wonderings about why God chose the symbol of a patriarchal marriage ceremony. There was talk of the groom “leading” the bride, and how it was so important for her to publicly announce her purity…. that double standard always has bugged me. And okay – I realize all marriages are different – but Steve doesn’t “lead” me! We do things together, with mutual respect and love.

Whatever. Anyhoo, I do appreciate the fact that God – in all His majesty and glory – chose a very human and “earthy” way to relate to the Church. There are implications to this symbol that I do not understand fully. But it’s a wonderful picture of an approachable God who really and truly loves and wants to have a relationship with His Church. And that, my friend, is pretty darn cool.

Anniversaries and Adventures

Even though we’re both crazy busy right now with our jobs, Steve and I took the day off on Monday to celebrate our SEVENTH anniversary! I still have a hard time believing it’s been that long! I feel as though I should be more mature or something.

At any rate, Monday was a good day. The weather was gorgeous, and we drove about an hour and a half north to the tiny town of Albion, where Black Pine Animal Sanctuary is located. It’s a refuge for abused or abandoned exotic animals. It’s a small place, but you can literally be within arms’ reach of some of the animals – way closer than you could ever get in the zoo. And there are tigers. FIVE tigers, to be exact. And monkeys, lions, cougars, parrots – even a camel that was retired from circus work! It was such a cool place. I got practically eyeball to eyeball with a black leopard. Who looked creepily like an overgrown Lady….

From there, we went to Chain o’Lakes State Park, which was just down the road from Albion. It’s exactly what the name says – a group of little lakes/ponds connected by little streams. Perfect place for some relaxing canoeing, and it was way different than the last time. The glassy surface and gentle breeze posed no problem for me! Boo to the YAH. And it was cheap – just $5 for the hour or so we spent on the water.

Next, we headed towards Fort Wayne for some dinner at Smokey Bones, Steve-o’s favorite restaurant. But first, we stopped at a couple geocaches along the way. Because it’s awesome.

It was a GOOD day!

Snowboards and Romance

We’ve been watching a lot of the 2010 Winter Olympics this week. As someone who grew up in the tropics, I love watching those silly people dance around the ice, defying death as they fly down frozen mountains, and acting like frantic janitors. (Curling: pure awesomeness!) And as we’ve watched the snowboarding, every once in a while I hear a little sigh of nostalgia coming from the other side of the couch.

Steve used to snowboard when he lived in Hungary. He even owned his own board, and has lots of stories of snowboarding adventures in Slovenia and other Alpen places. Winter sports are huge in Europe, as you can see with one glance at the medals table.

In 2001, I was living in Lithuania for fall semester, attending Lithuania Christian College. We’d started dating in July of that year, but due to travelling and living hundreds of miles apart, we had only seen each other for a week before I left for Lithuania in August. Steve had been planning on going to Budapest for Christmas to see his parents, and we started talking about the possibility of him swinging by Lithuania for my last week in the country. (I was going to straight to South Asia at the end of the semester to spend Christmas with my family, and wasn’t going to return to the US until January. In fact, for the first seven months of our relationship, we were only in each others’ presence for two weeks.)

But plane tickets are pricey, and surprisingly enough, missionaries don’t have a lot of extra cash. So Steve decided to let his parents sell his beloved snowboard to pay his way to Lithuania. After his semester was over, he flew to Vilnius, and I met him at the airport. Our emotional greeting made a nearby lady say, “Just like the movies!” We spent a wonderful week together, where I took him to my favorite haunts, walked around medieval old towns, and just enjoyed being together in a beautiful, albeit freezing cold, place.

And when he got to his parent’s house in Budapest? “Mom, she’s the one.”

Thanks for selling your snowboard, babe. I owe you one.

Awwww! Steve took this one of us in the dorm.

And this was taken one year later, right before we got engaged. He proposed to me at a palace in Vienna, Austria. Yeah, he’s awesome like that.

Rachel’s Top New Finds of 2009

What has improved the quality of your life this last year? What new gadgets have you adopted into your daily routine, or what new-to-you discoveries have blown you away? I’ve compiled a list of my top 10 things that have made an impact on my life this year. Not all of them are new to the general populace, but they are new to me! So they’re special. And more better.

Thing 1: Google Reader

What used to be a long list of blogs in my favorites in IE/Firefox that I would check on a regular basis became a little widget on my iGoogle homepage that shows new posts. I LOVE it. I even created a feed in Google that notifies me when WGM is mentioned in an article, which has been incredibly useful to the PR side of my job. As soon as a friend posts a new blog post, I see it. It’s awesome.

Thing 2: iPod speaker dock

Steve and Rachel help Phil move. Phil has lots of crap. Some of the crap doesn’t work. Phil is about to throw out broken iPod dock. Steve rescues it, and makes it work again. Steve gives said iPod dock to Rachel. Rachel is happy.

No seriously, I LOVE my iPod dock! I used to haul my lappy down to the kitchen so I could have tunes while I cook. And now, I have tunes from MUCH better speakers!

Thing 3: Wii Fit

I haven’t lost tons of weight, and I’m not insanely strong. But the Wii Fit HAS helped to strengthen my ankles that are still struggling from countless injuries during high school. It’s given me some variety in working out. It’s helped track my weight. And it’s just plain fun. We  recently upgraded to Wii Fit Plus, and that’s been a great improvement.  You can combine exercises into workouts and the new games are great. I didn’t use it much during the summer since I was working out outside, but since fall/winter has arrived, I probably use it about every other day.

Thing 4: My New Lappy

My old lappy was starting to move into the nursing-home stage of computer life, so Steve got me an early, early Christmas present last June by getting me an HP Touchsmart. Longer battery, it’s lighter, smaller, and waaaay faster. Plus a monstrously bigger hard drive. I like it a lot.

Thing 5: This new WordPress-based blog

I liked the Blogspot set up, I did. It was easy to use, etc. But it was time to grow, and I started feeling a little limited with Blogspot. I’d been using WordPress at work, so I already knew the system. And – I know this might sound dumb – but the typing interface is very important to me. Like, I have to feel comfortable while I’m pouring out my heart. And the design of this page is slammin’. Slammin’, I tell you.

Thing 6: Fitday.com

After talking one day in September with my friend Mel about my struggles with exercise and portion control, I decided enough was enough, and I was going to make some changes. We started looking for quality treadmills on Craigslist. (found one in October for a great price!) And I signed up for an account on Fitday.com. It’s an online food journal, weight goal log, and much more. It’s the easiest to use food journal that I’d seen, and I stuck with it for a long time. It helped me get back on track with portion sizes and understanding what foods have how many calories. And it’s free!

Thing 7: Geocaching

I blogged about geocaching last month. And I still think it’s awesome. I can’t wait until it’s warmer, and Steve and I can do some serious geocaching expeditions. We did do one last Saturday, on my birthday. We were at Muncie Mall, and Steve found one located near where we had stopped for a shopping break. He’s such a great hubby. Even if we did look a little like drug-dealers, passing a little baggie with white paper back and forth. Yeah, maybe a little.

Thing 8: Padded bike shorts

‘Nuff said.

Thing 9: Christians for Biblical Equality

CBE is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the idea of a gift-based rather than gender-based life of ministry and service. I met the editor of their magazine, Mutuality, at a conference in May, and she hooked me up as a member. I feel so very much affirmed by what I read in their magazines and blogs. I feel equipped, because they focus a lot on Scripture verses that were twisted by a patriarchal society. I feel empowered by what I’ve read. I feel affirmed as a child of God and as a woman. Thanks, CBE!

Thing 10: Treadmill and DVR on my old lappy combo

When we bought the treadmill, Steve’s mind was already figuring out how to set it up so we could access the DVR while using it. Because let’s face it, what is more boring than running/walking with nothing to look at but numbers slowing going up or down? Steve used my geriatric lappy and an old monitor, and voila, I can watch my stories while I smack the sidewalk. (Eh? Short Circuit reference, anyone?) It’s a beautiful thing.

Hope you enjoyed my fun new things in 2009! It was a great year, a fine vintage.

Weekend with Little House on the Prairie

In the last four days, I have read seven of the Little House on the Prairie books. Whew.

For some weird reason, I never read them growing up, even though my sister says we had them and that my mom used to read the Christmas chapters to us during the holidays. My whole family is books-mad. Every Friday night before church (Muslim country = Friday is the holy day, not Sunday) we would eat popcorn, drink pop, and sit around the table reading. It was actually a lot of fun, even though it does sound a little funny now.

At any rate,  a friend of mind had given me her set to sell in my half.com bookstore. But Steve saw it and said, “No! You can’t sell those! We have to keep them!” I thought it was kind of cute that he wanted them – books that I thought of as juvenile and a little too girly for my taste. A few weeks later, he decided to read through them, and after finishing a couple chapters, he set down the book and said, “You need to read these when I’m done. Laura is just like you!”

So, this past Thursday, I started reading The Little House in the Big Woods. And I haven’t really stopped since then! Laundry and cleaning have been on the back burner as I’ve travelled with the Ingalls family from Wisconsin to Kansas to Minnesota. I cried when Jack the dog died. I said, “Yay! They got a cat!” to Steve during the fifth – or was it the sixth? – book. I just finished the seventh one, where Laura and Almanzo are just starting to get friendly. Steve is one book behind me now, since he took some time to do some landscaping while I sat inside, chai in hand, and devoured the book he was on. I’m a darn fast reader.

We’ve had some great discussions come out of it. I highly reccomend reading books together as a couple! We’ve talked about settlers’ perceptions of the Indians, living for survival, money, and the fact that children as young as five or six had important chores to do back then. We’ve talked about how interesting/confusing it is to see huge events, like moving hundreds of miles, through the eyes of a small child. And one of my new favorite quotes in the whole wide world, “You never know where you might go, when you’re in a covered wagon.” 

These books held my attention like Harry Potter, made me cry like Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul, and inspired me like a good cookbook. Highly recommended, for children and big people.