15 ways to keep a relationship working

via stressed chocolate

thoughts?

doubts

weheartit

love can be so complicated, and i wrote this letter with need of advice from a loving friend across the sea in the city of love, paris. not only does she understand my relationship because she helped introduce me and my boyfriend, but she is my best friend and waited six years for the man she loved to love her back.

so, several times we have both discussed what its like knowing the person you are going to marry, with your knowledge unwavering, and mine much more unsure. regardless, i have been pushing through this long distance relationship, because crying to myself about how much i miss chris makes me realize how important he is to me and how much i love him. however, not a
day goes by that i don't think about the possibility that i am "wasting" time on him, because technically we can't be together till he goes to grad school/i graduate aka two years from now. and i wonder if he is the person i am going to marry, because if so, then all this pain is worth it and i know god has a plan for this. i won't deny the fact that being long distance has taught me things about him that i never knew seeing him daily, and its forced us to use words more than ever before. but i also can't deny the pain, the annoyance when i see other couples together, and my doubts which only just worsened now and caused me to write this all out.

so today, i was talking about marriage at kirsten's house with her and larry. and she asked me about what chris always says if it ever comes up, and truth be told, he always says "ew" when his friends get married at young ages. ok, yes he's a boy who hasn't walked around dreaming of the
perfect wedding dress and the playlist to dance the magical night away ending with flying lanterns like in tangled, (ok that's me) buttt i mean i know he's a family guy. so tonight when we were skyping i asked him how old he thinks he will be when he gets married. and he said "i don't know, it depends on the situation", and i said that i expect myself to be young. as we talked about this he said that getting married would stop him from doing things he wanted to, and so naturally i wanted to know what these things were and he said going to grad school. now this just sent me for a loop because i always envisioned our engagement beginning after i graduate and
ending shortly after ( i hate long engagements as you know). i don't even know what to think now, i was like why can't you be married during graduate school, and he said that 80% or some number similar of marriages end during law school and he never would want to be a part of that. ok that's nice that he thinks ahead - but this puts me out three additional years...

most people would respond with, so what if you know then its worth the wait. but that's five-six years from now. thats a lifetime away, and who is to say that we'll even be the same people then. and i know its dumb for me to sit here planning my life away but i can't help it. life is too short to
be anything but happy and with the person you love. so i guess i'm just asking for your thoughts on this subject, if being faithful through the pain is going to be worth it in your opinion. it was weird cause i prayed about it in church the other day, and that was my answer - faithful through
the easy and hard times. but the thing is, as clear as that answer was, i still question this future plan. shouldn't i already know if he is "the one"? i feel as though you should just know, and frankly i can see myself married to him, but i also have doubts. and i always say that anything less than a yes is a no.

love across the atlantic.

boring things

unknown

there is hope

weheartit

I wanted to tell my little love story to you guys, to tell you there is hope to get the one you always wanted. That love comes along when you least expect it to, and that all this cliché stuff is absolutely true. Your heart can skip a beat. You are able to get weak in your knees. You can fall in love at young age, and the feelings can stay there forever.

I met this guy 5 years ago. He was a classmate of my brother, and I fell in love the first time I saw and talked to him. He has this brown curly hair, and those deep and kind green eyes. Everywhere I went I was hoping to see him. I always took an extra look in the mirror before I left the house. We kept on talking. We actually never stopped talking to each other.

A few more years passed by, and I dated some guys during those years. But my heart still skipped a beat when I saw him. The one I always dreamed to called boyfriend. I never stopped hoping. To make a long story short, I fell in love with his best friend, but we really never worked out, and my feelings for the other one never went away.

Six moths ago we finally started hanging out. We were sneaking around for different reasons. One; I had a past with his best friend. Two; I was three years younger than him. Three; my parents would never accept it. But we were hanging out as often as we could, and we both fell in love. My parents told me they didn’t want me to be with him, but he never gave up on me or us.

Now I finally can call him my boyfriend. I have never been more in love. My parents are happy for us, and I’ve never felt like this. I am really happy, and I feel like this could last forever. I love how he hugs me out of the blue, how he gives me those soft kisses on my cheeks, and how great he is telling me he loves me. I miss him every time I see him drive away in his blue car, after driving me home at night. I love the smell of his cologne, and how it sticks to my shirt, or sticks to my pillow after sleeping over.

This story has made me realise that love is strong, no matter what.

I love you S
Love, I

no one else

Daniela Alexandra + unknown

norway

ph: fishywishy25

I visit this page every week to read about love across oceans, love that has been lost, love that lasts a lifetime and love that never will be forgotten. Today I want to share a different kind of love with you – the love of my country in hard times. *

I have always considered my country the safest in the world. This was my little country where we didn’t need police in the streets, where we could play in the streets with no parents watching us, where we didn’t have to lock our doors and where we are so few people that every person is a brother and a friend. This all changed a few days ago.

Norway is changed forever. We will never get back the Norway we had before July the 22nd - this because we will never forget. We will never forget the day a man got onto the scout camp and killed over 60 young adults. We will never forget the children’s screams. We will never forget the tears of the parents. We will never forget the stories the victims have told us. We will never forget the ocean of flowers outside the church. We will never forget our crying king.

No one is left untouched. We all feel so much pain. We are all crying for our children. We are all in shock. We are all watching the lists of names in the newspaper; names of children that was taken away from us in such a tragic way. It is so easy to hate the murderer. Somehow, it makes the sorrow easier to hate the man that caused all this. However, in the middle of all this, our prime minister, our king, our children and the children that survived the attack tell us not to hate.

All this darkness has taught us the value of love. Muslims are arranging concerts where over 200 000 people gather together in their hopelessness. Professional singers publish songs that they give out for free to show their support. Tour the France has a minute of silence in respect of the lost lives. Candles are lid in every window. Strangers cry on strangers’ shoulders.

This is my safe, little country and one person is not going to change that. When one person shows this much hate, we are going to show him how much love we are able to show together. I don’t think there is any better way to punish this murderer in than having his actions bringing us closer together.

Norway will never be the same again. The pain will never go away, and the tears will not be wiped away. They will be there and remind us of what we have sacrificed. It will remind that love is the only reasons to hate. The terrorist have taken a few of our roses, but can never stop spring from coming.

I could not have been more proud to call myself a Norwegian, hence the circumstances.
Thank you for all the support coming from all over the world!

*reader submission

you caught me

weheartit + unknown