A Salute'

I've been awfully quiet around here. Not because I don't have anything to talk about. Ha. Like that is even possible! I want to catch up, but for now I have this little thought that popped back into my brain while I was at a little wedding last weekend. (Which is like saying "oh I just had a little snack at the Vegas buffet" but that story is coming another day).
I know the bride from a group of girls with whom I go waaaaaaaay back. Not as far back as they go with each other, but- for me- waaaaay back. I was the first one to get married. To buy a house. Definitely the first to go to bed by 10 on a Saturday night. The first to have a baby. I am in fact, still the only one with a kid.
So even though this wedding couple has been together for years longer than J and I have even known each other, I am fairly certain that I still get to be the official Old Married Lady of the bunch. Don't argue! I will give time-outs! Now. I thought I'd play the part and deliver some Old Married Lady wisdom for my friend, whether she wants it or not. That's just how we OML's do. So here is some of what I've learned so far:
You cannot fit two whole oranges into one orange peel.
When I studied science, I learned that it is physically impossible to smoosh two things into the space of one. Impossible! But, well, that is basically what a marriage is. Trying to somehow fit two lives into the space of one lifetime. This can be difficult. It can get a bit crowded in there! We've all got things that we want to have. Or to do. Or to be. But you might have to give up some of those things. To, you know, make room for the other person. You might have to give up a lot of them. Or twist them around in a way that is painful if you're not very stretchy.
But maybe it will help you to think about this thing that I have realized so far. Which is that compromising or even sacrificing those things wasn't some kind of a mistake or misfortune. They were decisions. Made for this reason: that for all of the things you ever wanted to do, or have, or be, there was one thing- something- that way deep down you just wanted more. More than all of those things put together. Something you wanted Most. And whatever that thing was, for you, you found it! You found it in each other.
When it does start to feel a bit crowded in life, or if sometimes things don't work out just as you planned (and of course they sometimes wont), I hope that you will remember that your life is a fairy tale. That you already have your happy ending, you already are successful in life and have had your dreams come true. Because the thing you wanted most, more than anything else in the world- you got it! You have it! No matter what, or where, you have it there in each other. And the rest...is just icing.
So. Here is to the next Old Married Lady in line! To having found what you want most in all the world, and to getting to keep it. To life being sweet. And impossibly full.