words worth reading, illustrated by photographs of Jay and BK

poignant thoughts on love and marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert as portrayed by the almost ridiculous sweetness that is Sean (Jay-Z) Carter's and his wife Beyonce Knowles Carter's relationship

“To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow—this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.”

“People always fall in love with the most perfect aspects of each other’s personalities. Who wouldn’t? Anybody can love the most wonderful parts of another person. But that’s not the clever trick. The really clever trick is this: Can you accept the flaws? Can you look at your partner’s faults honestly and say, ‘I can work around that. I can make something out of it.’? Because the good stuff is always going to be there, and it’s always going to pretty and sparkly, but the crap underneath can ruin you.”

“Marriage is those two thousand indistinguishable conversations, chatted over two thousand indistuinguishable breakfasts, where intimacy turns like a slow wheel. How do you measure the worth of becoming that familiar to somebody—so utterly well known and so thoroughly ever-present that you become an almost invisible necessity, like air?”

"This is intimacy: the trading of stories in the dark. The act of quiet nighttime talking, illustrates for me more than anything else the curious alchemy of companionship."

all words by Elizabeth Gilbert, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

photos via I Am Beyonce