never saw this coming

Speaking of a generous, eager-to-help Universe, must take a moment to say THANKS for the wish I never made, never even entertained any thoughts of, that the Universe fulfilled in a truly spectacular fashion.

In all my years, from childhood through early middle age, I never envisioned anyone falling in love with me, let alone wanting to be married to me.  Instead, I was the perfect cad magnet - if a rake & a rogue was within five miles, I'd find him.  Or I fell for people it was a veritable lock would never be interested back.

All that being said & perfectly true, was also raised from my earliest days to be a good, nurturing & devoted partner.  Mom & Dad were great role models for how to approach marriage.  They loved & respected each other.  My guess is that there were a lot of times when the respect helped them get through rocky patches, although we kids were never aware of conflicts between them.  Perhaps their key was always being able to talk to the other person, to be open & honest, always from a loving place.

It was in my twenties that it first hit me - as abysmal as they were as parents, they totally rocked being partners.  And perhaps that was more important.  

Never, not in all my years, did I see John coming.   Never expected to be married.  Ever.  But I did know that if I did ever marry, it would be to my own true love.  Anything less was not an option.  Long before seeing Mary Engelbreit's artwork for "It takes a mighty good husband to be better than none," Mom was drilling into me, "Be careful who you marry - he'll be responsible for 90% of your happiness & 90% of your unhappiness."  And sharing with me the wisdom of how you know when you've fallen in love wih the right guy - you can't imagine life without him.

So, although I never dreamed of getting married, was always & forever trained in how to be a caring wife, supportive partner.  Not a good parent.  In that, I was totally unversed.  Am forever grateful that my Creator realized that parenting was not a wise place to go for me.  But a good wife?  Absolutely!

There was never an option to loving John.  We were as close to "he is mine, she is mine" as you're going to get.  Never saw it coming, but when he did, there was no going back, only forward.

Last night, Thane & Jori's wedding was the opening celebration of our 25th anniversary.  Twenty-five years.  Seems beyond belief.  Guess that it is, in many ways.  Looking forward to all the wonderful moments between last night's honoring of so many types of love & what we expect to be our final, capping celebration, listening to Prairie Home Companion with Dave & Candy in their Sioux Falls living room.

Thanking Mom for helping me be a good wife, to both Mom & Dad for modeling loving partnership, to the Universe for the glory that is John & for all the blessings that have graced my life.  Would say I am brimming with blessings, but know there is so much room waiting for new surprises & joys.  

Turned out that I grabbed the gold ring of ever-expanding life fulfillment - never saw it coming, so thankful that it did!