12/20/10

Stop
By Chelsea Oliver


She said we would keep moving. She said we’d be going and going, not settling, not slowing down and not, defiantly not, stopping.


But here we are. We’re stopped. We’re in our countryside home. We’re married; we have two children and another on the way. We both have jobs, stable jobs; the kind of jobs that keep you tied down to one place. The jobs that make you stop.


She was a young free spirit when we met. And when we fell in love though she worried at times - she never ceased to amaze me with her element of surprise and her grace. But above all, with her love. From that second, on a chilly November night in Pennsylvania with the shutters drawn tight, I asked her to be with me and from that moment on loving her was one thing I could never stop.



But now here we are. With the house and the kids and that big dog she begged me to get and we’re stopped. Clearly, quite obviously, stopped. We’re not as carefree. We’re married, we’re parents, we have jobs, we have responsibilities and we’re stopped. Sure we take vacations, we get away, we still give each other little surprises now and then. We’re still intoxicated by each others presence in a room and we’re still utterly in love, but we’re stopped.



She and I still have a lot to look forward to, our babies will grow, our lives will change but we’ll be here, we’ll be stopped. Our children are growing up, they’ll get married and move out and have their own children. We’ll out live our dog, we’ll out live our neighbors and we’ll probably even out live our dreams of before we were stopped.


She will eventually be able to poetically tell me about how great her love for me is and when that day comes I will still sit, stopped, in awe of how she could string words together so beautifully and I will only be able to say again, I will always love you, wondering how to ever say anything so profound and falling in love with her even more. The seasons will change; the house will wear with years. And here is where we’ll sit. Stopped. On the porch swing. Hand in hand. Laughing and talking like we always have. Our kids will be grown. Our dreams will be gone. We will be here. We’ll love here. While our hearts beat in rhythm with each other and our fingers intertwine, our love will never stop.


- - -
Chelsea is a senior at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA, where she is double majoring in New Media Journalism and Communication. She's also very much in love with a beautiful man.