I read that a lot in an assortment of cards I received last summer— with slight variations, of course. All you need is love… and you’ve found it! All you need is love… and a fabulous white dress!
On a down day (like today) with no work and a restless mood, I remember that phrase. I have found love and a white dress, and marriage (after a long courtship and engagement) is now just a few months away.
But I don’t feel all that happy.
And it’s not my mother’s daily and earnestly concerned emails (Do you want white or ivory linens for the reception tables? Have you talked to Ashley about the font size for the place cards?) or pre-wedding doubts, for no one could ask for a better man than I have been given.
It’s something I, as a die-hard romantic, find hard to admit: That all I need is not engagement or marriage or children or a purebred corgi puppy that magically does not shed. That marriage will not somehow change my life into a white (ivory?) blur of bliss, where problems are vague and
happiness is concrete.
All I need is love. But it does not come from love found here in the world. It comes from Him, who lived and died for us, so that we may feel joy and fullness in the knowledge of His love.
In the silence and the occasional sadness on down days, I hear the words He said, and I feel a buried joy awakening: “I have come so they may have life and have it abundantly.”
All you need is Love.
~Monica Caropreso