outward together

Love does not consist in gazing at each other 

but in looking outward together in the same direction.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

* * *

I posted this quote a few Valentine's Days ago, but it bears repeating. It's one of my favorites and I have it hanging up on our fridge, too. This morning, and I guess several mornings over the past few months as I look at the fridge and see this quote, I have been thinking about how its pertinence has changed for me over the years. We were in a pretty different place three years ago—I had just started grad school, we were still newbies on the east coast, and there was so much unknown about our future, and I don't think we cared that much because we were so entrenched in what was happening right then.

Now, looking outward together seems so much more important than it did then. I only kinda know what the next year or so has in store for us (that's not any kind of announcement shrouded in vagueness, by the way), and knowing how to do things together and making compromises and bearing one another's burdens makes looking outward towards uncertainty a lot easier, if that makes sense. And each decision we've made together over the past few months has just meant a lot more than it used to. This is what being a grownup is all about, I guess.

I love you, Robbie. Thanks for looking outward with me.