Butterflies!

I don’t remember when, but I saw a really cool TED talk by Neil Pasricha, where he spoke about his 1000 awesome things project. Corie and Jeffrey unwittingly sent me back in his direction. Here are my remarks from their wedding:

I am always fascinated with how couples describe their love for each other. In talking with Corie and Jeffrey, they mentioned two things you hardly ever hear in this context in the real world. Corie said that her love for Jeffrey was love at first sight, and Jeffrey said he still gets butterflies in his stomach every time he sees Corie.

Now, did you ever ask yourself why people get butterflies? Leave it to the groom who is an MD to pique my curiosity in this scientific question! So I googled the phrase, and a really cool website was one of the first hits, Neil Pasricha's www.1000awesomethings.com. His awesome thing #259 is what Jeffrey is talking about. First he answers my question, why does this happen:

"Scientists suggest the fluttery feeling of buttery flies in your tum tum just comes from blood flowing away from your digestive system and zooming everywhere else in your body." He says that the reason for that is embedded deep in our genes, and is part of what scientists call the fight or flight reaction. When the body is challenged, it momentarily shuts down the parts not important to it in dealing with the challenge, like the stomach.

He poetically continues, and here is where he really resonates with me. "Because when you get the good kind of stomach butterflies it means you’re burning and buzzing about a big day. After rehearsing for months your play finally comes, after that electric first kiss you’re dreaming about bliss, after practicing all year the big game is here.

Yes, when your mind opens up, when your path starts to clear, when you know where you’re going, when you start to get near… well those are the moments we live for and those are the times to go long, yes those are the moments to go for and those are the times to be strong. Awesome!"

Wow! Awesome, indeed. You see, if we take that and extrapolate from it to Corie and Jeffrey, it tells you how special and unique their relationship is. After all anyone who knows them will tell you that these are not just two love struck kids. In fact, Jeffrey will tell you that he feels like he has known Corie for many years. And Corie will tell you that what cemented her love at first sight for Jeffrey was how great a father he was. In other words, these are serious individuals with a love that runs very deep.

It is specifically when coupled with that depth, that the butterfly feeling is so special. These two (actually three with Griffin) are just so excited about becoming a family. These two keep their love so fresh. These two will tell you how lucky and special they feel not about today, the wedding, but about today and every day after that, the marriage. Now that is truly and utterly awesome. With that, let's get you two awesome people, Corie and Jeffrey, married without further ado!