Hand in Hand – February 09, 2003
Now with silver hair and careful steps, the couple slowly walks the lane that leads from their home. It’s time for their daily stroll. Their steps are unhurried, their eyesight dimmed, but beating in their hearts is a love and commitment that passersby can almost feel. They walk hand in hand, as they’ve done since their earliest years together. Their walk used to give them time away from the kids, time to be alone. Now the kids are long since gone, but the two of them keep walking as they’ve always done. The conversation is usually simple—often, they hardly say a word. After five-and-a-half-decades of marriage, they’ve learned something about life, about love, about two hearts that beat as one.
Few things touch us like seeing a couple in love. Whether newly married or celebrating a golden anniversary, couples who keep love alive, who endure the ups and downs of life together, deserve our admiration. These men and women will tell you that it’s not luck that keeps them in love. It’s choosing to stay in love, all along the way.
A happily married couple will tell you it takes two: both partners giving their all. They’ll tell you it’s not easy. They’ve chosen to forgive, more than once. They’ve decided to be patient, time and again. They’ve learned to resolve conflicts—as quickly as possible. They talk about their feelings and really try to respect the differences between them.
Such a couple holds on to the vision of who they are becoming—together. When hard times come, as they surely will, they don’t lose sight of their shared goals and enduring commitment. One couple had printed on their car license plate holder these words, “David and Michelle, Happily Married 25 Years in 2015.” That kind of positive outlook is sure to see them through some of life’s challenges.
Thousands of years ago, Cicero said that the first bond of society is marriage. We are bound together as a community, as a nation, as human beings, by our willingness to make and keep sacred bonds. Such bonds can truly liberate. In the security of a stable marriage, each partner discovers his or her true self, strengths and weaknesses alike. And in the loving embrace of the other, each becomes his or her best self.
Just as there are no perfect people, there surely are no perfect marriages. Becoming of one heart, one mind and soul, is at least a life’s journey. But when we continue to choose to love, like a marathon runner choosing to stay in the race, we discover that marriage was never intended to be a sprint. Life’s race is best run hand in hand with the one we love. We work at it; we hold on. We move forward with faith. And as we do, the years pass, time fades, but hand in hand and heart to heart we walk together the road of life.
Program #3834