I went for a walk by myself at lunch today. I haven’t done that in a really long time. I used to commit myself to at least two lunch hours a week in order to get away a bit and decompress but when you have so many great friends nearby, it’s very hard to resist the temptation to spend time with them any chance you get.
I did manage to escape on my own today though so, I went and grabbed a cold drink and slowly roamed the streets of my daytime stomping grounds. While enjoying the warm summer air, I quickly found myself thinking back to the Sex & the City Movie that some of the girls and I had seen last night. Without giving anything away, the movie basically revolves around the topic of marriage and the various “places” that people can be within it. As the only married girl among us, I’m quite sure that I went away from the movie with a different appreciation and understanding of it then my single friends did but nonetheless, the truthful reality of topic was a life size reminder of just how big a decision marriage really is!
This past weekend, Steve and I went home to celebrate my in-laws 40th wedding anniversary. Forty years! Isn’t that incredible? In this day and age, that’s a very rare accomplishment to witness and I can only imagine the many different things that they’ve seen and done together as a couple. I’m sure that there must have been times when it wasn’t always easy and times when a lifetime together seemed easier said than done. I wonder this myself sometimes even as I reach the tail end of my third year of marriage; will there be enough love, enough patience, enough desire to make it work? While there are no guarantees in any relationships…I truly believe that, yes, there will be enough of everything we need.
A friend once asked me how I knew wanted to marry Steve and when I stopped to really think about it, I realized that my relationship with Steve was the first time I truly understood that there was a difference between loving someone and committing to someone. Many people love each other without really committing to each other and many people commit to each other without really loving each other but, there is a significant difference between the two. It’s very true that the love that exist throughout a lifetime together will endure different phases; the love that you share when you first get married will likely be very different than the love that you share forty years later. The real test is whether or not you can commit to those changes. Can you commit to sticking it out when that love transforms? Can you commit when there’s a chance that it won’t even exist anymore? Can you commit to remembering that there’s a reason why you fell in love in the first place? That was how I knew I wanted to marry Steve…because no matter what, I was committed to sticking it out with him…regardless of the changes that our love could endure and with the understanding that it most likely would have to.
As I walked down Sussex Drive glimpsing at all of the beautiful designer dresses in the window, I had to chuckle at the brilliance of this movie. We are drawn to these four New York women for their Manolo Blahniks and string of cute men but, really…there is an entire method to their madness that I was barely even aware of until their shining moment on the big screen; there is also a very significant difference between a wedding and a marriage! The most beautiful wedding dress in the world won’t keep you together if you can’t commit to each other in sweatpants. Not even the Manhattan stylings of Carrie Bradshaw can pull that one off!
So here I am, just when I thought these girls couldn’t get any better…they go ahead and give even us non-single girls a reason to try and follow in their footsteps. The real challenge though is to try and do so with lovely two inch heeled footsteps to make the journey a bit prettier! I think I’m up for it and I even have the perfect black stilettos with which to do so!
Fabulous!
I did manage to escape on my own today though so, I went and grabbed a cold drink and slowly roamed the streets of my daytime stomping grounds. While enjoying the warm summer air, I quickly found myself thinking back to the Sex & the City Movie that some of the girls and I had seen last night. Without giving anything away, the movie basically revolves around the topic of marriage and the various “places” that people can be within it. As the only married girl among us, I’m quite sure that I went away from the movie with a different appreciation and understanding of it then my single friends did but nonetheless, the truthful reality of topic was a life size reminder of just how big a decision marriage really is!
This past weekend, Steve and I went home to celebrate my in-laws 40th wedding anniversary. Forty years! Isn’t that incredible? In this day and age, that’s a very rare accomplishment to witness and I can only imagine the many different things that they’ve seen and done together as a couple. I’m sure that there must have been times when it wasn’t always easy and times when a lifetime together seemed easier said than done. I wonder this myself sometimes even as I reach the tail end of my third year of marriage; will there be enough love, enough patience, enough desire to make it work? While there are no guarantees in any relationships…I truly believe that, yes, there will be enough of everything we need.
A friend once asked me how I knew wanted to marry Steve and when I stopped to really think about it, I realized that my relationship with Steve was the first time I truly understood that there was a difference between loving someone and committing to someone. Many people love each other without really committing to each other and many people commit to each other without really loving each other but, there is a significant difference between the two. It’s very true that the love that exist throughout a lifetime together will endure different phases; the love that you share when you first get married will likely be very different than the love that you share forty years later. The real test is whether or not you can commit to those changes. Can you commit to sticking it out when that love transforms? Can you commit when there’s a chance that it won’t even exist anymore? Can you commit to remembering that there’s a reason why you fell in love in the first place? That was how I knew I wanted to marry Steve…because no matter what, I was committed to sticking it out with him…regardless of the changes that our love could endure and with the understanding that it most likely would have to.
As I walked down Sussex Drive glimpsing at all of the beautiful designer dresses in the window, I had to chuckle at the brilliance of this movie. We are drawn to these four New York women for their Manolo Blahniks and string of cute men but, really…there is an entire method to their madness that I was barely even aware of until their shining moment on the big screen; there is also a very significant difference between a wedding and a marriage! The most beautiful wedding dress in the world won’t keep you together if you can’t commit to each other in sweatpants. Not even the Manhattan stylings of Carrie Bradshaw can pull that one off!
So here I am, just when I thought these girls couldn’t get any better…they go ahead and give even us non-single girls a reason to try and follow in their footsteps. The real challenge though is to try and do so with lovely two inch heeled footsteps to make the journey a bit prettier! I think I’m up for it and I even have the perfect black stilettos with which to do so!
Fabulous!
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