My daughter Ashley wrote a great guest blog for me last week about how her definition of love is growing as she comes to understand more about what love and marriage are all about. Reading her post I couldn\u2019t help but thing about how my own definition of love has grown tremendously over the years and how with each year of marriage the appreciation for what it really takes to love someone else – the unselfishness required, the forgiveness needed, the efforts that must be made, the patience that must be exhibited, and the level of unwavering commitment necessary\u2026with time we come to recognize that love was a decision we made and actively stuck with through the good times and the bad until one day we can look back and see, as Carolyn Pearson explains in the lyrics to her song, \u201cThe Last Touch\u201d, that we \u201cknew that we knew what love was.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Last Touch\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>written by Carolyn Pearson:<\/span><\/p>\n Their first touch at 17 was in the park,<\/span> Another touch at 22 on their wedding night,<\/span> Then again at 25 when the baby came,<\/span> Later on at 54 sitting on the porch –<\/span> Their last touch at 85 was by her bed,<\/span> After 68 years of laughter and tears,<\/span> Love certainly isn’t always easy. Nothing will challenge or change us more than loving another person will. But when we find that person who is equally committed to making it work, who values our same values, and who is willing to stand side by side as we celebrate the good times and we work through the bad, we’ll come to recognize that it was all worth it. But remember, in order to have that person we have to be that person ourselves…<\/p>\n ~Amy Rees Anderson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My daughter Ashley wrote a great guest blog for me last week about how her definition of love is growing as she comes to understand more about what love and marriage are all about. Reading her post I couldn\u2019t help but thing about how my own definition of love has grown tremendously over the years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5644,18702,395,501,500,101,18668,18687,1620,18693,8622,5564,4298,51,102,18697,18696,3527,55,18686,18701,464,18689,18691,18698,18699,18690,11,1772,2505,18694,145,416,18703,18669,18688,18700,3088,18695,18692],"class_list":["post-9632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aging-parents","tag-aging-spouse","tag-amy-rees-anderson","tag-appreciate","tag-appreciation","tag-ashley","tag-ashley-anderson-hill","tag-carolyn-pearson","tag-death","tag-efforts-required","tag-end-of-life","tag-eternal-love","tag-families-are-forever","tag-family","tag-forgiveness","tag-forgiveness-granted","tag-forgiveness-sought","tag-grief","tag-happiness","tag-helpmeet","tag-in-sickness-and-in-health","tag-joy","tag-knew-that-we-knew-what-love-was","tag-love-and-marriage","tag-love-is-a-decision","tag-love-is-a-decision-we-make-and-stick-to","tag-lovie","tag-marriage","tag-pain","tag-partner","tag-patience-exhibited","tag-service","tag-spouse","tag-the-death-of-a-spouse","tag-the-growing-definition-of-love","tag-the-last-touch","tag-through-good-times-and-bad","tag-til-death-do-us-part","tag-unending-service","tag-unselfishness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9632"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9635,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9632\/revisions\/9635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nthe moon was full: she was beautiful to him,<\/span>
\nand her hair was long and her eyes were blue and her skin was warm;<\/span>
\nshe turned to him, and he thought that he knew what love was.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nthe stars were bright: she was beautiful to him,<\/span>
\nand her hair smelled sweet and her lips were full and her skin was warm;<\/span>
\nshe turned to him, and he thought that he knew what love was.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nand the sun was high: she was beautiful to him,<\/span>
\nand her hair was damp and her fingers shook and her skin was warm;<\/span>
\nshe turned to him, and he thought that he knew what love was<\/span><\/p>\n
\nall the children gone: she was beautiful to him,<\/span>
\nand her hair was gray and her forehead lined, her skin was warm;<\/span>
\nshe turned to him, and he thought that he knew what love was.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nand the moon was full: she was beautiful to him,<\/span>
\nand her hair was thin, her eyes were closed, her skin was cold;<\/span>
\nshe turned to him, and he knew now he knew what love was.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nhe knew that he knew what love was.<\/span><\/p>\n