Seeing Marriage

They were talking of being married fifty years. One said it would be wonderful, representing a half century of sacrifice, of surviving the suffering and difficulty of life. It made the fifty years sound like a million. Another said it should be seen as a celebration of love and closeness, of a life spent in discovery and fulfillment. It sounded like but a day.

How we see it makes it what it is. How it is lived, what people bring to it or allow it to give makes marriage real for them. And so even though in each marriage there may be sacrifice as well as love, and difficulty beside fulfillment, the dominant factor is what we allow it to be. What we will see is what is.