Arranged Love

One of my favorite quotes is from The Wedding Planner when Massimo says, "Love cant always be perfect. Love is just love." 

I've never had too much of a problem with the concept of arranged marriages. I don't think I would like to have my marriage arranged although honestly, sometimes it sounds seriously tempting!

My peace with this concept comes from a strong belief I have that any marriage can work if both partners are putting in the effort. 

But I don't want to talk about that right now.

I want to bring up the process of love that Mary's dad highlights when he shares a story about his own arranged marriage:

Your mother and I had an arranged marriage.
              An arranged marriage?
              We met on the day of our wedding.
              We couldn't even look at each other.
              I was in love with another girl...
              and your mother wanted nothing to do with me.
              She said I had big eyebrows and a low IQ
              Anyway, one day...
              I got very sick with scarlet fever...
              and she stayed by my side.
              She took good care of me.
              For the first time...
              I appreciated her.
              Then the appreciation grew to respect.
              Respect grew to like.
              Then like grew to love.
              A deeper love than I could ever hope for.
              So give Massimo a chance.
              Maybe you don't like him now...
              but maybe you might love him later.

Now, the point I want to make is that every relationship is like an arranged marriage in the sense that over time little events in our lives follow the trend of appreciation to respect to like to love.. even if we started out with a little more like and love than an arranged marriage might. And the beautiful thing is, it never ends. You will always be able to continue that cycle and always have "a deeper love than [you] could ever hope for."