35 Days

I leave for Europe on June 13th, arriving in Prague on June 14th. I can only imagine Trina will be waiting for me at the airport. One hundred and sixty days will have passed since the last time I saw her---January 4th when I dropped her off at the international terminal at LAX. I pulled up to the curb and we hugged and kissed and said "I love you" and then I drove away.
The parting seems so casual and insignificant in hindsight but I know how emotionally intense it was as well. I remember I was actually concerned with my ability to drive home competently. I managed to keep it together until I finally got back to my room in the house and just collapsed on the bed.
In the last one hundred and twenty-five days, I know my commitment to Trina has grown stronger. The distance has been difficult but I have not questioned my love for or devotion to her. She can still make me so happy whether through her letters or phone calls or just through thinking of her and our times together. There have been other moments of collapse when life, and Trina's absence, was emotionally overwhelming. I always believed that life with her was better than life without and that everything would be fine when I saw her again.
Faith is a funny thing.
I have never believed in any god or spirits or greater power. I do believe in my friends and in my family and in Trina. I have faith in their love. This faith in Trina keeps me going on a daily basis---without it how could I survive the distance? I can certainly understand a person believing in God as a form of emotional support. In my humble opinion, God is a cultural label for a set of emotions, experiences, morals, and practices---all of which strive for love and harmony between human beings. So, belief in God is a belief in the capacity for Good in humanity.
I know these are wide generalizations and I know that my casual explanation of God ignores the desire for the greater purpose of life (in which I do not believe). Perhaps I will discuss these matters in more depth sometime soon.
I only have thirty-five days left to test my faith---thirty-five days and the rest of my life.