Sitting in an ICU watching an 85 year old couple talk, laugh and love. There is a comfort between them that is visible. So accustom to life together, they now wake, sleep and eat on the same schedule. There are both kind words and frustration expressed openly. It is a wonder to watch total honesty between two people, to see complete openness. The conversations we have with ourselves, inside our heads, are expressed aloud between two people. Almost like talking to yourself. Through the years love for self and love for another can melt together. Over the years, adversity and blessings, being richer and poorer, experiencing sickness and health can bind two individuals together like a welder. You may be able to distinguish where one stops and another starts but they cannot be separated without great difficulty. The two have become one. One physically, looking alike they talk and move alike. One emotionally, think alike but openly correct and question each other. One spiritually, taking great comfort in a faith nurtured together over the decades. It may not be possible to understand or appreciate the depth of a life-long marriage from the outside looking in. It cannot be explained, only experienced. Sadly, so few are willing to invest the effort into a life long relationship. Forgiveness, consideration, companionship always benefit the giver as well as the receiver. We are so afraid to be selfless that we never get the chance to see the return on these blessings. We can't cling to the cliff and fly at the same time. Jump. Jump into marriage with total abandonment of self interests. Cling to each other instead of the cliff. Sore in the good times, hold on through the bad. Don't be afraid to give in to another's wishes. Don't be afraid to change. Marriage take courage. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up. (Ecclesiastes 4:9)
Sitting in an ICU, watching a 85 year old couple after 68 years of marriage. Life has aged the outer shells. The minds and the bodies are slower. I know this is not a permanent home for them. But I am watching them fly, together.
