le grande geste

 Grand gestures are kinda nice...

 They come about so rarely in real life... but so dang frequently in movies. 

 The happy ending is swaddled in selflessness...

And the image of sacrifice, brokenness, gratitude....

is in our minds given a kind of permanence. 

 Like that gratitude wouldn't eventually fade -

 Like that arrogance would never again rear it's ugly head -

But, the grand gesture is more fragile than it lets on.  It's delicate & tender - easily wounded or bruised.  

The grand gesture on it's own?  It's weak, broken and temporary.  

It's only power is in the very first moments it is given - 

and then -

ohhh, then -

it's power is overwhelming, moving, life-changing...

The stuff movies are made of. 

But after the soaring strings fade - and the bloody, beaten hero kisses the girl.
After the house lights come on, and i brush the popcorn off my skirt onto the grungy movie theatre floor.
i realize - that even the smallest mercy has become a grand gesture. 
Every apology, grace and 'try again'...
Has cost me as dearly as the bloodied hero gasping his last.
i realize that the no turning back moment of decision -
forsaking all for love -
throwing caution to the wind -
The climax to every chick flick on the planet -
 comes every. single. day of our lives...

"Oh, again??!!" My heart cries -
grasping and in danger
Full of doubt and fear... and the opportunity to lay it all down for the sake of another tears away yet another layer of selfish pride.
Marriage?  It needs to be full...
full, full, full...
of the sacrificial love...

of the grand gesture. 
*************************************8
ps
ok - so i realize that these pictures have nothing at all to do with what i've written, but i wanted to share them too...
Happy 4th to my American friends :)