There was a small display at the wedding I went to the other night. Someone had set up a table with pens and green paper, and guests were invited to write an idea for a date, and pin it to a vine of ivy. The couple is freshly in love, and probably won't need any reminding for at least the first year. What they will need is time. 

I encouraged Benjamin to write a message, not because he has experience with wooing girls but because he sometimes surprises me with his thoughtful responses. He wrote something in his curvy script. He loves serifs. No Helvetica for him. 

There was a song at the wedding called O Precious Sign, and half way through the first verse John nudged me. 

"He's singing!" Sure enough, Benjamin was belting out the words which he knows by heart. I dreamed for one luxurious moment of the angel wife who will both understand and love him.There is a lot to love.

The song was part of the service on Sunday as well and he sang every verse, thumping his chest like a metronome.  

Finding novel ways to spend an hour together is one of the five friendly suggestions on a website called Engaged Marriage. Another is expressing three things you are grateful for which is a standby. Twenty questions is a remake of what we played at kids, and another suggestion reminds me of an activity we enjoy called the Drawing Game. It involves trying to see things through your partner's perspective. The fifth is to mindfully look into one another's eyes. 

John and I left before the reception was over, leaving our four kids to keep dancing. As we passed the small table he pointed to the paper leaf with his writing on it. How about that. It was the same thing I wrote. 

"Let John and Lori take you out for coffee."