Cheers to hard times! Really.

Frank and I, in our two giddy years of marriage, have been warned by the long married folks more than once to "get ready," "watch out." Or they may say, "just you wait." "Hard times are lurking out there somewhere for you two.  Let's see if you still have that smile on your face and that glint in your eye when they hit. Then the honeymoon's sure to be over," and some people who know us well might add "finally."

I confess that Frank and I regularly reel in our gloating to each other and about each other because we are very aware we are probably obnoxious. Very happy, we are. Hinged and buckled up as one, we are. Function best together, we do. It shocks Frank, the independent bachelor til 58 and his first time saying "I do" when he said it to me. It pleases me, the one not married for the first time this time, that I know how skewed we could be by now with what I know are more typical responses to, well, most life experiences. I know what it's like to aggravate someone by the very breath I take. I know what it's like to throw the Coke can into the wall out of absolute outrage over something much, much bigger than the Coke can.

So, here's the public service announcement, and trust me on this one - I'm old enough and experienced to know ... I'm reaching elder status after all - Frank and I had a tractor-trailor load of challenge thrown at us from the very beginning than could ever be guessed or imagined. And, it chased us well into two years. Maybe this was all accelerated because we knew time was wastin'. We had enough "stuff" one day early on as we sat in his house chatting, that I looked at his front door and wondered why I wasn't hearing it slam behind me as I walked out and left that set of challenges.

But, I didn't walk out. He didn't give up. We knew that at the core of Frank and Rhonda was something Divine, something that could not be denied. Love. That was it. True love. Unconditional love. And that Core Love is still there. It's the hard times that prove it. Granted, it takes two, but we don't leave things unprocessed that grow into hatred. The air must be cleared, so we take the time to make time to really hear each other. And, that makes us feel safer with each other. The love has been tested and proven.

Bumps in the road prove a car sturdy, or not, able to absorb the shocks, or not. Turbulence in flight proves the steadiness of the pilot, or not. Crisis proves strength in a leader, unity among people, or not.

So, I say "Cheers to hard times. Really."