Icelandic Cairn

We picked up these very very smooth stones from a couple of beaches in Iceland way back in 2004.  As I recall, the beach at Vik was one of them.  This is one of the very rare times I consciously joined MonoMonday.  Shot very quickly tonight while I took a break from the genealogy project, which kept me busy the whole day today.  Why?  But the better question is 'why not'.  But I can answer 'why' -- I wasn't in any mood to go out.

Still watching snippets of my current favourite romantic film.  Aside from obviously enjoying it, I've also been wondering about this sudden semi-obsession.  I think I just never got to know this wonderful experience of having been in love while you are young.  There was so much pressure to remain chaste and protect the family honour that I ended up doing the exact opposite with hardly any room for romance or even a proper friendship.  By the time I was 20, I had turned into a cynical, distrustful, mental chess player who decidedly turned her back on everyone and stamped both feet on the ground in an attempt to stay rooted in 'reality'.  I refused to entertain any ideas on 'relationships'.  I got to know hubby when I was almost 25 and still I didn't trust it.  It was too good to believe.  It took about the first 6 months of our marriage for it to sink in that he was 'okay'.  He took it all in stride.  As it turned out, he didn't believe in it at first, either.  We'd both been burned way too badly.

Now I like to watch these films and wish I'd been allowed to trust myself and the world way back then.  How lovely it is to watch young people in love!  To see them discover each other, make some mistakes and get advised and comforted by family, grow steadily into a more serious love.  Hubby and I wish fervently that we have many more years together because we're not that young any more.  But just how realistic is it to wish we get just as much time as the young ones?  No, we aren't worried.  Instead, we're squeezing as much fun as we can into our lives now.  It's the most we are allowed to do.