A successful marriage requires falling in
love many times, always with the same person.
~Mignon McLaughlin
Love one another and you will be happy.
It's as simple and as difficult as that. ~Michael Leunig
Aren't they gorgeous? This picture is precious to me.
It's one of the ONLY ones like it of them at this time
in their lives. I believe it was taken
when they were yet dating.
You see photos like this one these days and you
learn of a milestone anniversary and you think thoughts like,
"Wow, they've got it figured out...it's TRUE
love...genuine happiness..."
I'm only guessing but I'm pretty sure if you were sitting in their
kitchen talking with them that they'd say
they don't have much figured out but they're with
the only person that they want to figure anything out with.
Then, they'd continue to putzie around the kitchen
and scramble eggs or go mow or something.
They're so, SO funny.
My folks lived out a very real marriage in front of us.
We, girls, all have sweet memories
(yes, you do Kristen...she claims amnesia regarding all
childhood memories) of those happy, gooey,
feeling-filled times where we watched our folks
smooch or celebrate or forget for a second that
they were anything but a couple. It's always neat
to catch your folks in a moment like that OR really
gross depending on how old you are. They loved
each other and us and we knew that.
BUT...it's the harder memories
that were perhaps the better teachers...
They showed us how to rebuild a marriage after all the walls
and part of the foundation got ripped down. They may
have even briefly lost each other from time to time but
they always found or clawed their way back home.
They fought for it. They persevered, sometimes
with only one of them able to hold on for both.
And when they didn't want to hold on or fight for it,
they'd still truss it up with their faith in God until
the desire to perhaps quit passed and that fickle
emotion "Love" would return.
Emotion is flimsy material to build a life on.
TRUE love is a daily choice...not a feeling.
My folks taught me that.
I cannot number the people that have been blessed
because my parents did not give up when it got tough.
And it did get tough, real tough, just like it does for everyone,
but my folks, somehow, managed to make the harder, braver,
more loving choice and stick it out. God has blessed them for that.
God has blessed me, my sisters, our spouses, our children
and countless others because of their choice to just stay.
Thanks Momma and Daddy...its so beautiful
and one of the best gifts you've ever given me.
You deserve so MUCH! I know Daddy is wondering
where the cruise tickets are...the reservations in Hawaii...
and all I can muster is a mushy blog post. It is SO not enough.
I love ya! Happy Anniversary!
Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling
safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor
measure words, but pouring them all out, just
as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that
a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what
is worth keeping, and with a breath of
kindness blow the rest away. ~Dinah Craik
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