backpacking

Reposting from a friend today:

"A very wise woman once told me to think of long-term relationships as if you were backpacking a continent: that I could spend my entire life with bare feet and a backpack, [walking] through Africa, and on my dying day still not know everything there is about that continent. And to me, that's the metaphor of what long-term relationships are — that it's a journey, and you have to stay intentional and you have to stay present. It's so easy to get tired, or to lose track of the path that you're on, or to want a new adventure. I think what I'm learning, if we're all honest, there are moments that we all have that in our long-term relationships. It makes it ache a little bit less, knowing that it's a universal thing in a lot of ways, and that to stay mindful and to stay present and to stay curious about the person that's inches away from you all the time is really a beautiful thing. And that the "Same Old, Same Old" can actually be full of life and full of passion, if you stay connected."

-Joy Williams of The Civil Wars

I'm looking forward to this kind of relationship with my life partner one day...