Commitment...

One of the cute, fun things about our multicultural relationship is the way we contrast one another in our approaches to certain little aspects of our life. You’ll pick on me about using superlatives and hyperbole, as is the common parlance of my culture. And I’ll gently rib you about the chronic inability to speak with certainty when discussing possibilities (though, in the places where it really matters, I should note that you are very, very certain). You’ve told me that, because your people are so honest by nature, they never want to commit fully to something that they can’t guarantee, including to things like the future. I remember the first time I said that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, you responded with, “I hope we get to do that.” 

Coming from a culture that has a tendency to head to the other end of the commitment spectrum and overpromise far too frequently (which, I should also note, I don’t do), it’s taken a little bit of adjustment to understand that. But it’s all part of learning to speak one another, I think, and I’ve become quite fluent in you. Ditt språk, jobbar jag på. I’ll get there. The thing is, I have never, even in the darkest of days or hardest of conversations, doubted your commitment to me, nor to us. 

Commitment is a word that scares a lot of people. We seem to have this innate, deep down fear of locking ourselves into one place or situation. For those of us with wild souls, who value freedom so much, you’d think it would be even more so, and maybe it is, with others. But with us, it seems as though committing to one another, and to this life, has given us freedom. It’s created a sense of home in our hearts, a rock-solid foundation from which to leap as we soar together through this life. The ties that bind me to you make me feel safe and moored, not restricted. 

One of the very first things you ever asked of me was to fly with you, and we have. We do, every day. My heart could no less be committed to you than it could cease to beat (I’m allowed a little hyperbole, now and then, when it matters). Devotion to your love is just as much its function as keeping me alive, because that love is what gives me life. I love you, fiercely and dearly, my sweet girl, now and always.