What's the Meaning?

Many days I think to myself, "What's the meaning behind this day?" Day is sometimes interchanged with conversation, event, or even life in general. In the routine of life it's easy to forget that there can and should be meaning to your life other than just going to work and watching television.

I definitely don’t have this whole “meaning” thing figured out, but today I was doing a little organizing around the house and refreshing my dry erase boards. I was erasing my eye drop chart (that's another story) and while I was contemplating what to write on it three words suddenly flashed in my mind. Eat. Pray. Love. 

These three words happen to embody the things that give my life meaning right now. (Okay, so my dry erase board was inspired a little bit by the title of the book, Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, but not necessarily related to the content of the book. If you haven't read the book I would recommend it, if you have read the book I would also recommend Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert. I'm currently reading Stern Men also by the same author. The verdict is still out on that one).

Now for the meaning that each word represents in my life...

Eat –

Alex and I are on a mission to eat healthier. We do pretty well, but there's always room for improvement. It's amazing how quickly you can reap the benefits of eating healthy. Cooking has become one of my favorite things to do since gaining my own spacious kitchen and more free time, but more and more I take pleasure in planning our weekly menu, grocery shopping and trying to be creative yet healthy at the same time. 

It's the perfect way for me to be organized, creative, and do something better than Alex (haha just kidding). For dinner tonight we had mixed greens with balsamic grilled chicken, toasted pecans & cranberries with mashed sweet potatoes. 

It's not really about the food though. Eating dinner together is a value that both of our parents instilled in us and I love that. Even though we eat together every day, sometimes we still choose to stay in and eat dinner together instead of going out to eat with friends. 

“I am a better person when I have less on my plate.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

Pray - 

As part of our dinner routine we grasp one another's hand and say an introductory prayer and then one of us takes over with a personalized prayer. This is a great time to thank God for all our blessings and reflect on the day. No matter what's happened during the day or what's on the schedule for the evening that moment is so important to realign our minds and spirits to God and one another. 

“Prayer is a relationship; half the job is mine. If I want transformation, but can't even be bothered to articulate what, exactly, I'm aiming for, how will it ever occur? Half the benefit of prayer is in the asking itself, in the offering of a clearly posed and well-considered intention. If you don't have this, all your pleas and desires are boneless, floppy, inert; they swirl at your feet in a cold fog and never lift.”  ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

Love - {Now jump back a couple hours...}

One of the reasons that it’s easy to love my husband is because he’s expressive and thoughtful. My wedding band had been bothering me because I was always realigning my rings. I decided to have them sodered together. Our jeweler is in Louisville and Alex happened to be there for work so he dropped the rings off and then picked them back up this afternoon. He sent me this text message on his way back...

Not only did they soder the rings together, but they fixed a prong and gave it a good cleaning. When Alex got home, he made sure to take off my substitute ring I had been wearing and he replaced in with my own. When Alex slid the ring on my finger I couldn't help but remember the feeling when he had done that the first time for our engagement and the second time when we were married. 

(I have recently been on quite a few wedding photographer websites so you know where this idea came from...haha)

I originally told Alex that I wanted sapphires in my ring so it would be even more meaningful than an engagement ring already is. My birthday, Alex’s birthday and both of our parents' wedding anniversaries fall in September (as well as my dad's birthday and my best friend's, with my mom and Alex's brother Pat at the end of August). Seeing as September was already pretty full, you can understand why we opted for an early October wedding instead.

What I didn’t realize at first was that sapphires have a wonderful meaning all their own that already relates well to marriage. They have long symbolized truth, sincerity and faithfulness. How perfect is that?

Before Alex had returned home I had received news that a job I had been hoping to interview for had been filled. I was so disappointed and upset, but then Alex came home right at that moment with all of his thoughtfulness and reminded me about the unconditional love that I'm so lucky to have.

 “To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow - this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

I think my dry erase board will just have to stay as it is for a while. As for the meaning of life, that will stay a work in progress as it'll constantly evolve, but I want to close this post with one final quote from Elizabeth Gilbert:

“Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be... a prudent insurance policy.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert