the quotable princess bride #5

La Promenade by Renoir

"Buttercup was searching somewhere for sufficiency of courage. Evidently, she found it in his eyes."

The mushiest. Yet so true of me.

The most intense instance of this came when Ellie was on her way out. I know for a stone-carved fact that if it weren't for Jared's presence I would have given up an hour into active labor. Not because it hurt so much at the moment, but because six . . . seven . . . twelve more hours of it sounded like too much to handle. And they would have been, had I faced them alone.

I'm not sure why a companion can give you courage, but that's exactly what happened. While I lay in the hot tub, breathing slowly and relaxing every muscle in my power, Jared sat by the edge holding my hand. The knowledge that my husband was with me made each contraction seem like something I could handle. Labor wasn't going to beat me. We were going to do this thing. And we did.