Long Marriage

       Long marriages require health and much forbearance by the one who knows us best. Launched into commitment on the pulse of romance, long marriages are also a matter of endurance. Sometime after Joanne's death I blogged about our little pet peeves. Joanne's, my failure to replace the toaster cover, and mine, her failure to replenish the butter dish. In the retrospect of two plus years in the land of grief they seem incredibly trivial. Multiply these grievances by a few dozen and it's in the realm of the remarkable, if not the miraculous, that Joanne kept me for 55 years. Fully capable of being the critic who knew me best she was significantly restrained and thus our marriage not only lasted by thrived.
      Poetry, and especially that of Maya Angelou expresses this reality.

Maya Angelou (b. 1928)

"Touched by an Angel"

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

Takk for alt

Al