32 Years

For some bloggers who I read that is longer than they have been alive!  My math brainy husband tells me that is more than 2/3 of my life that I have spent with him.  We haven't been married 32 years; that us when we started dating or as we said back then, "going out."  "Going out" meant we had an exclusive relationship.  My mother was  not happy.  She forbid it.  I cried, yelled, pleaded; my sister intervened, "Don't worry mom, it won't last."  I'm not sure what made my mom change her mind, maybe it was the shock of my sister being on my side, even in a backhanded sort of way or maybe it was because she was still in bed and hadn't had her coffee yet. Who knows?
My husband is an introvert by nature.  But he stepped way out of his comfort zone to meet me.  He knew me before I knew him in that live in the neighborhood go to the same church sort of way.  His brother dated a girl I was in the folk group with and my brothers played basketball at the school gym so that is where he would see me. 
I was in high school, he in college when we began dating.  We married after four years; he had graduated and I was a junior in college.  He proposed to me in our Church, getting down on one knee after carrying the ring in his pocket during the basketball practice.  I never actually said "yes" but he put the ring on my finger and we walked to my house to show my family.  I was so very happy.
And after all these years, I am still so very happy.  We haven't always ben happy.  The journey has at times been rough as we found our way to love each other and become adults.  Our children are a joy and a blessing to us and I hope that one day they have what we have in our life together. Love, respect, joy and still the thrill when we slow dance.  Marriage is not easy, but every day I thank God for the blessing of the man he gave me.  I know he does the same.