thoughts for today

Yesterday, I handed in my letter of resignation on my second part-time job.  Whew!  This morning it felt so good to be able to go outside and plant bulbs in my garden instead of getting ready for another eight hour shift of mindlessness.  I wasn't at that job very long . . . just long enough to see that I wasn't going to learn anything I wanted to learn and that there are things I regard as unethical that I won't take part in.

My younger daughter is getting married this month.  My friend, Melinda, is coming out to visit me next month and in July, I will be taking a trip to my home town of Marquette, Michigan.  We will put my mom's ashes to rest in her cemetary plot there and I will spend some time sitting on the beach of Lake Superior contemplating things.

Hopefully I will see some friends I've known since we were kids and get to know a cousin I've never known but who graduated from high school with me.  Divorces have a way of preventing things like closeness or even friendship between cousins sometimes.

In September, my husband and I will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.  It has been a long and amazing ride we've taken together.  Certainly there were times when neither of us were particularly smitten with the other, but we always respected one another.  Our friendship seemed to help sustain the relationship during the times when we weren't feeling "in love" with one another.  And then one of us would fall in love again, and so would the other.  And we'd have that magic back again.

These are the things I want to tell my daughter and her man as they embark on their trip together.  Be kind to one another.  Respect one another.  Be gentle to one another.  There are plenty of people in the world who will make your life harder, so be a respite for each other from that.  Have each other's back.  Remember the things you promise one another on your wedding day, and try to abide by them.  Forgive one another when you make mistakes.  Things will surprise you about one another no matter how well you feel you know each other.  Make each other laugh - that's important.  It feels really good to look back on my life and have my husband share so much of it with me.  I hope you will have that too.