24/7?!

That’s the love of my life, writing me a poem—my anniversary gift to honor 32 years together.  I wrote one for him as well and tonight we’ll enjoy celebrating at the steakhouse on this cruise ship, and read our gifts.  (Why, I asked him, do we have to do it when I’ve got mascara on?!)

It’s a cold and blustery day as we cross the Tasman Sea.  We’re on a high deck so when gusts of wind hit the rolling boat, it sometimes feels like it could just topple over.

But I sleep in peace next to this man, the love of my life, my rock for the 32 years we’ve been married.  I’d never want to be anywhere else, even if our lives were ending (IF, I said…and no, it’s not anywhere near that rough, nor is it dangerous).

Marriage is, in some ways, like crossing the sea.  There are sunny days of relaxed togetherness; evenings of dancing and laughter; days that quickly pass doing work or the minutiae of life.  And there are stormy days when all you can do is hold on until they pass, moments you think you might not make it.

We’ve experienced every season in 32 years—sickness, health, richer and poorer.  We’ve been desperately in love and we’ve been distant and annoyed.  We’ve gone through scary times when we felt the ship of our life toppling and feared we would sink.

But we stayed together through it all (yes, partly because of our joking agreement that whoever left had to take all 5 kids—but mostly because in spite of it all we love each other deeply).  And I’m sure glad we did.  We believed that if we could just hang on through all the storms of life, eventually we’d find a safe harbor.

Now that we’re retired and travel full-time, we are almost always together 24/7.  Are we bored with each other?  Are we annoyed with or sick of each other?  Are we throwing ourselves overboard if we hear another corny joke repeated?  Do we have nothing to talk about?

We wondered about this just as you probably do.  And about a month in there was a little adjustment—not because of each other but just both of us were used to being alone much of the time.  Tim fished; I did my thing.  We got past those tiny and momentary needs.

Ever since that first month, and now beginning the 6th month of our nomad life, we are loving it all.  Being together constantly feels like a privilege, not a sentence.  We love each other’s company more and more and find plenty to talk about.  We’re busy having fun or content relaxing together doing our own things—never bored.  Tim’s corny jokes and voices keep me laughing.

When we got married, our dream was to spend all our time together, in love with our soulmate.  A busy life got in the way for about 30 of those 32 years.   But now is our time.

As soon as he finishes writing my anniversary poem (which he needed a little alone time for), we’ll go back to 24/7, forever.  Mindful every day of how blessed we are to have this time together, we wouldn’t have it any other way.