25 years today!

25 years ago today I married my bride, Barbara. 25 years exceeds most of our own friends and many of my parents friends. We grew up together really.  I see our marriage as the core defining part of my life in ways I never would have guessed earlier in this journey. So much of what goes on in a marriage is about a world view. Ours started together as musicians, she a singer and me a guitar player. We also shared the experience of a death of a parent at around the same age, too young. Later we learned how to live together, how to raise kids, how to vote, how to talk to each other, how to manage careers, household, emotions and the list goes on and on. We learned how to confront and solve problems together and that may well be what has kept us together when so many decide to move on when things get ugly. Not that moving on is the worst thing to do for many people, but I'm happy that we are still going strong and looking forward to many more years.

For all of you that are newly married, or maybe aren't married and have a view of marriage that doesn't go much farther than the wedding ceremony, take heart! It all changes pretty dramatically after the first couple of years, but what happens after that can really be better than the heady, sweaty, thrilling and scary early part of the thing.