My sweet DH and I just took a trip to celebrate our 20th year of marriage. I spent a few months planning this trip. I could go on and on telling you the details of the trip, talking about the convertible we rented, showing you the beautiful scenery we encountered on our drive and chatting up the wineries and restaurants we went to.
But what I’d really like to share is how much better celebrating a 20th anniversary was compared to a celebrating a honeymoon.
Don’t get me wrong, we had a fabulous honeymoon! We went Disney. It was the hip place to go at that time. We were excited and looking forward to the weeklong trip. At the start of our honeymoon we were tired from the wedding and all the festivities. There was the let down of planning this fabulous wedding and then it was over. There was the excitement of starting our life together and the excitement of the future. We were young. We were naïve. It was a great time and one met with anticipation for the future.
Now the future is here and the future is gone. We have experienced the ups of being a newly married couple and the downs of regular life. We’ve moved to new cities, watched jobs come and watched jobs go. We’ve laughed, we’ve fought, we’ve thought marriage was the greatest blessing and the worst curse. We’ve bought our first house and brought our babies home.
Some say marriage isn’t easy.
I say life isn’t easy. Life is rich and marriage is rich.
Twenty years later we’ve learned a few things. Things like how to enjoy the moment. How fast time flies. How precious special times are. How chaotic life can be. How someone you never even knew could be born, and you can’t remember life without them. How someone you thought would be there forever is gone in a flash. How fights you thought would end the world and your marriage can be over with a laugh and an apology. How swallowing your pride is not as hard as it seems and it doesn’t make you less of a person to do it.
When we began our trip last week, the world was still with us. I was concerned about leaving the kids for a week and DH was concerned about leaving his job for a week. We both thought these things couldn’t survive without us.
Once we started driving and relaxing, we understood what a special time this was. A time to enjoy the moment. To soak in all the beauty, to soak in all the freedom of being together and to soak in all the love we’ve built in this marriage.
Taking the time to celebrate was precious. It makes us realize how rare these moments are. It makes us realize how much we’ve built in this relationship. We’ve created a bond and a family. We’ve worked hard at keeping this family together and grounded. We have made sure this marriage is priority no matter how much of a pain it was to do. We hope we’ve created a legacy that our children and grandchildren will remember.
Twenty rocks.
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3 comments:
You almost had me in tears. I am so glad your trip was so wonderful. I know you both needed it, and from the sounds of things, it was well worth the ups & downs of the past 20 years. Love you guys!
Beautifully written! We didn't take a trip for our 20th, but we've had other trips away from the kids and it is truly a wonderful time.
A good marriage is worth the work.
Blessings to you & yours
beautiful post, Laurie! I would rather celebrate 20 years over a honeymoon any day. Im so glad you had a special time away together :) xxx ooo
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