I’m having a bit of a quiet day here. Apparently running around like a mad-woman, trying to get every possible last thing taken care of, working two jobs, and getting ready for vacation can do you in a little bit. So, today seemed the right day to share a bit of quietness with you. To share a bit of what married life looks like after the storm of wedding planning.
A gaggle of my dear blog girlfriends all sent out similar dispatches on married life via Twitter over the last few weeks, and it seemed right to collect them. So for you, a collection of small tales, shining in the sun. And just for fun, I linked to all our weddings. The before and after, if you will:
First, from me (my wedding)
Reading decorating magazines with my husband at the river. I feel so happily domestic. #marriedlife
Then from Cate (her wedding)
What did we do with our child-free hour? Sit on the beach and throw stones at a can. #simplepleasures #marriedlife #bliss
And from the lovely Kristina (her wedding)
I’ve got the baby laying naked on the kitchen floor whilst I drink a beer and read recipes with him. Summer is good.
Then this particularly joyful message from Marchelle this weekend (her wedding)
A day of fun & laughter at the river festival + an evening on the couch of hopes & dreams & plans = best day ever.#marriedlife
Which was quickly followed by…
Those poor women who think their wedding will be the best day are totally missing the point. Hopefully, it’ll just be one of thousands.
So all that for you, today. I think sometimes we forget, in the whirl of wedding-ness, in the whirl of fear, what we’re really aiming for. We worry that we might end up as one of the many unhappy couples, and forget to spend time thinking about how we could end up like reader Rachel’s grandparents:
Last week, my husband and I visited my dad’s parents, who have been married 57 years. Cooking breakfast in the morning, she would call across kitchen to the living room, where he was reading he paper. “Joseph!” she sung. He would pick his head up and beam at her while she waved her fingers back at him. When we went into town, they walked with arms around each other’s backs.
Some marriages don’t last. We know that, and it’s scary to begin this journey with that in mind. But there are also people like my Nana and Pop-Pop, who have lived through the murder of a sister, deaths of their parents and many of their friends, a quadrupal bypass, three sons and 8 grandchildren, and a rash of mental illness, and who still behave like two teenagers in puppy-love. There is hope, and if we don’t leap because we’re afraid love might not be there tomorrow, it won’t.
And you know how you get there? One quiet day at a time.
And PS, if that isn’t enough… remember Christina & Patty’s wedding? The one with the original bridal brigade? The wedding graduate post that made me ugly -cry in a good way? Here is Christina glowing and very pregnant in the very same back yard, there own backyard, the one the married in.
Picture: Me, from the river. I took it on my iPhone, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me.
