Two hearts become one. Life is perfect. Marriage, family and a life everlasting. That’s what every little girls dreams. Finding Prince Charming will make her life complete.
Reality is much different. Sure, as relationships develop the parties involved don’t realize how much they compromise and change for the potential love of their lives. If all works out, commitment and marriage follow. You’re ready to live the dreams the two of you’ve whispered to one another.
Life seems to move in hyper speed once careers and family fill the time the two of you used to share. Living in the same home, you spend more time running in different direction and start relying on yourself again for planning and execution. In quick bursts you share you’re new thoughts and dreams without much time to listen to your partner.
How do two people ever survive living together?
Are you ready for the answer?
Wait for it?
WORK
PATIENCE
PERSEVERANCE
GROWTH
UNDERSTANDING
It’s too easy to one day wake up and find you’ve nothing in common. The children leave the nest and you’re left with one another, wondering what happened in the intervening years.
You’re two different people who shared the same stimulus in very different ways. Though it doesn’t feel like there’s commonality that kept you together for so many years.
Take for example coming to this same point and putting yourselves on a small vessel pointed to sea. You can imagine our surprise. After whispering to each other the one plan that kept us together through life’s chaos, we wake up to find we’re not sure what to do with it and each other when we arrive.
There’s comfort when you find you’re not the only cruisers who have experienced the same thing. Then you look around and find you are two different people and you ARE still together. In fact, you’re better than you were because of life’s experiences. So we take the opportunity to discover one another again. We learn we don’t need the big drama of plans of the past. We can live life with new discoveries about each other every day.
Where are you at in your life’s relationships? Can your relationship live without work, patience, perseverance, growth or understanding? How do you make life new again?
We will celbrate or 35th Anniversary April 2nd! Every day is an adventure. Relearning, Give and Take. And YES work… LOL. You and CAptain certainly look happy 🙂 Hugs to you both.
Carol, did you receive the copy of The Bridge Club I gifted you from Amazon?
Patricia, things have been a bit crazy here. Jeni said she got it. That it is in her computer, but not in her Nook. (I do not know if she just has not got to it. Or she couldn’t get it any further.) If you still have her email. You may ask her. I am really looking forward to reading it. Thanks again.
Hugs.. CAROL DEE
Carol, hugs to you as well. And Congratulations on 35 years! The captain and I are only half that much.
Wonderful photo of you and the Captain! You are spot on with your comments about how relationships change once the children move on with their lives. Marriage is an ongoing, ever-shifting commitment that requires effort as well as love. Right on!
Thanks Patricia. Sometime we feel so alone when our relationship changes. It’s nice to know the feelings and work are universal.
We’ve been married 36 years and at least 10 of them happily– that’s a joke. It’s more like 50/50, lol.
You did leave one word out of your list that applies to both parties in their life of bliss. “Forgiveness”. I am with the one person on earth that can put up with me and I’m thankful everyday– well, almost everyday!
Dannie you are so right. Forgiveness should top the list. And congratulations to both of you for 36 years. There’s a real testament to that.