ENDURING love
Enduring love is not the flutters in the stomach feeling or the giddy, can’t stop thinking about it obsession. It is not powered by the chase or fueled by passion. Although all these things can certainly play their part, it doesn’t rise and fall with the tides.
Enduring love is a deep and abiding love that is built on a foundation of respect, acceptance and understanding. At its core, it is seeing another, all of them, and being seen by them in return. It is a partnership, but not in the transactional kind of way. In a way that each half works to make themselves whole by supporting the other without losing sight of who they are. It is hard and it doesn’t remain constant. It changes, evolves, grows, experiences setbacks and grows again. It endures.
This is the love Henri and Paul Braun share. They have been married for 60 years. They have woken up every morning for 60 years and chosen the other, again and again and again. They endured painful and frightening distance during the Vietnam war, they endured moves and challenging careers (he in technology, she in nursing). They endured the blessing of a beautiful daughter Robin who mirrors their steadfast love for her right back.
As I captured their 60th anniversary celebrations over multiple days, I witnessed how enduring love spreads, creeps, permeates and seeps into all the relationships around it. I could see that love in the eyes of family who traveled to be with them, the embrace of church friends who share their faithfulness and the tender cheek kisses of friends they have worked alongside for decades. I was brought to tears when capturing the bowed heads in prayer at the neighbor dinner. Neighbors who I was repeatedly reminded were “family”.
The greatest gift of enduring love I have found is not just the faithful and sustaining bond between two people. It fills the hearts and lives of all those who are blessed enough to be around it. And no doubt, it is able to thrive BECAUSE of those around it, honoring it, nurturing it and giving it the oxygen it needs in this world. Cheers to you Henri and Paul, to sixty years of loving each other completely!