Theodor Suess Geisel, better known to all of us as Dr. Suess, is perhaps America’s most beloved children’s book writer, poet, and cartonist. The whole nation mourned when he passed away in 1991.

Before his pen went silent, he had authored 46 children’s books. Who among us can’t recite at least a few lines from one or more of his classics?  His best known works include Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Cat in the Hat, Horton Hears a Who, and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. Ironically, the single Dr. Suess phrase that means the most to me is a quote attributed to him regarding relationships.

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams,” Dr. Suess has been quoted as saying. Since Dr. Suess had big dreams, I believe the quote indicates he was also intimately familiar with great love.

It is awesome when our hearts know great love first hand. It can also be incredibly uplifting when we see others experience it.

A couple of weekends ago, I had the privilege of snapping a few photos (and getting much needed photo-remedy) at the wedding of a young couple at our church. As the collage below illustrates, they really looked like they were living “reality is finally better than your dreams.”

My wish for Kevin and Angela, and, actually, for all of us, is that we experience many  ‘beyond our dreams’ moments.

I also hope we are able to capture many of these treasures in photos. Because, as I wanted to tell Kevin and Angela, don’t blink. The next thing you know you will be having children, and then time will fly by so fast that your children will soon be nourishing the next generation. Photos help us to remember milestone moments, and even people we have loved, before we forget notable details that might otherwise float away like a dried up rose petal on a gusty pre-tornado Oklahoma day.

At least that has been my experience. This June, Mary and I will celebrate our 30th anniversary. It really doesn’t seem possible – that we have been married that long and that the next generation has come rushing through the door.

It’s all good, though. Before you know it, we will be dusting off our old Dr. Suess books for little Emmett and future grandchildren. We’ll be using the books and pointing to the drawings. We won’t, however, need to read the lines. While I can’t always remember what I did yesterday, I can somehow never forget, “The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold wet day…”