Engaged!

Take a look at these two photos.



Eva & Clifford - Engaged in 1915
(Click on photo to enlarge.)



Dan & Sarah - Engaged in 2005
Sarah's is Eva's great-granddaughter

They are separated by about 90 years. One photo shows my grandfather and grandmother at the Michigan farm where Eva was born and grew up. The other is my daughter and her husband of over a year and a half, Dan, taken at his home in Defiance, Missouri.

Something about the two photos side by side struck me this week and bolted me out of my inactivity on this blog.

So much is shared by these two couples--separated by ninety years, but both brimming with anticipation.

The hopefulness, the future unwritten, the sheer size of the years ahead of these two couples. Where will they end up living? How many children will they have? Will they be happy? Will they celebrate the good times and support each other in the bad times?

So much is unknown when a couple just starts out. I know the end for my grandparents. I don't know what's ahead for my daughter and her husband. I do know they have an adventure ahead of them. The years still spread out ahead of them. And maybe someday, a granddaughter will write about them as they contemplate the future of their own children.

Mercy me, I'm waxing poetic today. Must be Dan's birthday that's got me thinking... Happy Birthday, Dan!