Finding Mr. Bates.

I was recently introduced to Downton Abbey.

I know, I am nearly a decade late to the game.

But I have been struck with awe in the characters and their dispositions.

Specifically two servants, Anna and her husband, Mr. Bates.

Their harrowing love saga ripped right off the silver screen, but with so much more accessibility to the prospects of the events unfolding, being true to real life.

There is a rawness about them, an openess.

Their love heartbreakingly real in its hurt, its highs and its lows.

Yet when things get tough they don't run away, they turn to each other.

Something I have noticed in today's society being terribly absent.

The idea that when the going gets tough, people just get going.

Very little worth fighting for, because that takes work, effort, and determination.

A quality which seems to have become void today. It's much easier to pack a bag and walk, than be troubled with another's misfortunes, their trials, and their tribulations.

Easier to stop answering the phone, and to simply look away.

Then face someone else in their misery, their pain, their problems, their destitution.

But seeing Anna and Bate's love story unfold through the darkest of times.

It makes me feel heartwarmed and reassured that there are still those men and woman who will make the ultimate sacrifice to protect those they love out there.

Consistently going above and beyond, without feeling burdened, but feeling it necessary.

Without feeling bound, but with the truest of love and incredibly voluntary.

Without deterrence but determination.

Willingly.

I am not done with the series, but I am longing for the days of old, and know there are still Bates and Anna's in this world.

In the meantime I will try to emulate, we all should.

Xoxo,

C.