I am still on travel for work. I am enjoying what I am doing, though I miss my spouse a lot. I speak with him on the phone each evening, but it’s not the same as having his warm embrace when I get home from work, and to listen to his stories and share our tales of each other’s days.<\/p>\n
I was with a group of colleagues at dinner and said as much — I miss my spouse. To that, a colleague asked,
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\n“How long have you been married?”<\/p>\n
That was not easy for me to answer. I almost said, “just over 20 years.” But technically, that would not be accurate. I have “only” been married 140 days. Each day is a gift, a gracious gift, and I treasure each one.<\/p>\n
What I actually said was, “about four and a half months after a twenty year engagement.”<\/p>\n
My colleagues — most of whom are military — didn’t quite know what to say about that. The table hushed and someone asked me to repeat what I said. So I did.<\/p>\n
One guy said, “man, that is the longest engagement I’ve ever heard of. What happened?”<\/p>\n
Then some other guys in the group started explaining their engagements from several months to three years. One of them asked me again, “why was your engagement so long?”<\/p>\n
So I decided to tell the truth — I could not legally marry my partner until this year, and we got married once we legally could do so. I did not say anything about same-sex marriage, but it was evident what I was talking about.<\/p>\n
I was pleasantly surprised by the rounds of congratulations that the guys gave me all around. They were genuinely happy that things worked out for me and my beloved spouse. I heard, “well, it’s about time” and “hopefully this political garbage will end soon everywhere else” and similar statements.<\/p>\n
Then the conversation morphed to discussions about marriage, relationships with wives (and a spouse in my case) and it was great — normal discussions among men separated due to duty from their spouses. My spouse happens to be a man — theirs are women — what’s the difference when it all comes down to the most important thing: love. <\/p>\n
Life is short: feel the freedom (and relief) by being honest even with people you don’t know that well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am still on travel for work. I am enjoying what I am doing, though I miss my spouse a lot. I speak with him on the phone each evening, but it’s not the same as having his warm embrace … Continue reading