In the next couple of months I have the privilege of attending two weddings, both couples are very close friends. It sounds great that there are weddings to be invited to, and you could argue that it is a sign of my world right now. A sign of an age where similarly positioned peers are entering into the journey and covenant of marriage,
“The wedding invites will slow down in a few years”,
you might say. Well I’m not so sure. In the circles I live in, there seems to be a case for weddings. An appreciation, even a respect for the idea of sticking together for…well, ever. Yes, forever.
Ah yes, but what if one person has fallen out of love with the other? What happens then?
In these situations it takes a simple choice. A choice to Love. Hollywood is a champion of the love story, when the stars align, hearts miss a beat and there is love and romance and everything seems to be right with the world. But then the picture has to come to a finish point. The story can’t always be rolled out to the end, its just not possible. There wouldn’t be enough DVDs for the life-story and so we are left with the impression that the journey of ‘Happily Ever After’ was unmarred, or should I say strengthened, by obstacles and challenges that made or broke the union. Yet it is the simple choice, The Choice to Love, that held two parts together.
When two parties enact their right. The freedom of choice, the choice to Love, there does seem to be a trending pattern emerging. Year on year couples are celebrating anniversaries. Yes anniversaries.
Anniversaries are the curve ball in the trending habits of married couples. Despite a media fascination with separation, isolation and failings, there are so many people in a marriage that is clicking through the years like there is no tomorrow. There is no stopping them, because they have resolved in their own hearts and minds that this idea of marriage is for me, I am better for it and I plan to make it work, come what may. I am so thrilled that I know of at least 100 couples that will, this year, celebrate another anniversary
So if you are thinking of entering a union, starting a married journey then do so. Do so with the knowledge that it can run into your elder years because you have the choice to make it work, to see it through, to be the curve ball in the statistics that want to suggest that people are unfaithful or that people have no stick-ability. As human beings we are so much better when we are connected and I know that as a married man, I am so much more a ‘fuller’ person because of my wife.
dean hogarth 