"The First Year is the Toughest..." ???

This morning I was checking my good old email at my office, and all my emails from today are time-stamped "14 September 2010". Which, for some reason totally caught me off guard as I realized we (all of humanity) are halfway through September, which means we are practically finished with October which means it is almost November 6th!!

November 6th... Our FIRST anniversary!

Sound the Alarm!

What in the ...!!!

Now, Here's a small confession:

This rapidly approaching day *almost* makes me sad! Time is flying way too fast and we are having way too much fun for it to be buzzing right by.

At the same time, having our first year of marriage under our belt and being way way way more in love than we were a year ago is quite a feat.

Definitely cause for celebration.

Which, since I am taking it upon myself to plan, we will.

Now, to all of you people who told us things like,

"Your first year of marriage is the hardest"

or

"Watch out- things are gonna change"

I'd like to say

"Boo on You."

All of you dark clouds trying to rain on our love parade

have another thing coming.

Our first year of marriage has been

W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L.

In fact, I would be happy to live in this year forever,

although we DO listen to the people who have said

"It gets better every year."

Marriage to me is the most exciting, humbling, inspiring, comforting adventure one can go on in life. To have a constant companion to walk through life with, a person to fight all your battles with, a forever confidante, one who brings out the best in you and tells you "You can do anything in the world!"... what a gift.

People say Marriage isn't for everyone and I'd like to know why not!

When thinking back on our first year, I've figured out why people do think the first year of marriage is tough. It's because your spouse's presence in your daily life reveals all of the areas in which you are selfish- self-preserving, self-centered, self-seeking, self self self self, etc.

Your life is not about YOU anymore, the way it is when you are single and only answer to yourself. A lot does change when your life is joined to another. Your schedule, your meal times and free time, your time commitments, your priorities, your budget.

But those things don't harm a relationship unless people are unwilling to negotiate and talk it out.

Our marriage counselors told us to "define a win for both of us" when we come to an area where we need to find balance.

Any fight we've had this year has forced me to ask myself, "Are you being selfish and unwilling to budge here?" Oops- the answer is always yes.

Now, I gotta go put together a wish lists of proper anniversary gifts to give the Mister a few ideas on how to WOW me on November 6th. Don't worry, I will post that too!

Your marriage vet,

CPK