Meredith, it sounds like your mom will be able to completely relate to these complex emotions. It's amazing to me, how often I imagine that my thoughts are so isolated and strange; then, when I decide to share them anyway, I inevitably find out that so many others can relate. It's truly one of the best things about blogging. Also, what you pointed out about how people don't love their youngest child any less than their oldest? So true, so smart. 

Cheryl, you and Meredith were thinking the exact same thing at exactly the same time. I love it! And it's such a good way to think about love and time. This is very perceptive, too: "The length of time spent alone or in dysfunctional relationship before the marriage probably has more to do with 'comparative happiness' than number of years spent together." (Btw, seeing your three comments in a row made me laugh!)

Naomi, this is so beautifully put: "Love isn’t linear. We can’t expect a feeling that encompasses eternity to operate under the same rule of physics as gravity or daylight." Thank you so much for your insight and congratulations.

Christine, I don't think I've heard that saying before, but I really like it. It's so true—every so often you meet a friend and feel like you've known them forever. It almost makes you believe that you were together before, in another time and place. Thank goodness those deep connections are an important part of our generation's approach to marriage. Here's to healthier, happier humans, indeed!

Writer Dad, awwww...so sweet of you.

Dave, that's a really good point. It's important to think of time not in terms of measurable chunks—minutes, hours, days, years—but in terms of what we're doing with that time, and how we're caring for each other. As I mentioned in my post about Love Languages, Quality Time is what speaks love to me the most. Clearly I'm a fan of that "valuable, finite resource," as you put it. I just don't like the ways we typically measure it. :)