Today's Beautiful Gem: `I love you' by Roy Croft.

Nobody knows whether a marriage is made in heaven or on earth.
However, it is between two earthlings. Marriage is certainly a
celebration, a celebration of a union-- a union between two
souls, two lives and two loves. It is also a celebration of
love, of years, and of life. The principles of sharing and
caring that is the hallmark of a successful marriage are brought
out excellently in the following poem. The married couple are
not only a husband and a wife, but also good and lasting friends.

"I love you, not only for what you are,
But for what I am when I am with you.
I love you, not only for what you have made of yourself,
But for what you are making of me.
I love you for the part of me that you bring out;
I love you for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart
And passing over all the foolish, weak things
That you can't help dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked quite far enough to find.
I love you because you are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life not a tavern but a temple;
Out of the works of my every day not a reproach but a song.
I love you because you have done
More than any creed could have done to make me good,
And more than any fate could have done to make me happy.
You have done it without a touch,
Without a word, without a sign.
You have done it by being yourself.
Perhaps that is what being a friend means after all."

Om s'aantih: Peace! - J. K. Mohana Rao

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