Horse-drawn Marriage

 

As days dwindle, I think more and more about the most important journey of life, that of marriage.

It's a part of the salvation story, and can't be divorced therefrom. "One flesh," Jesus said. Mark 10:8-10, and that's probably the last specific Scriptural reference you'll see me use.

In so very many ways, I failed, and continue to fail.

I'm hard and flippant and turn everything into a joke. It breaks Barb's heart.

But it's the best I have.

A stallion's what I thought I'd need

to ride into matrimony,

but it turns out my trusty steed

was actually a Shetland Pony,

a hairy little whiskered thing

raised for long work in a pit.

I wondered what this beast could bring,

but Barb minded not a bit,

for she had seen the ins and outs

of marriage through the years;

while stallions do good warlike shouts,

they suck at drying tears

that every groom and every bride

should never have to keep inside.

The Five Minute Friday prompt this week is SIMPLE. Should be easy.

It would be so very cheesy

and you'd quickly call my bluff

if I said that marriage is easy

when everybody knows it's tough.

We come to it with expectations

less of what we'll give than get;

and the attitude alterations

aren't nearly over yet,

not after all these twenty years

of living weird on weird,

but through it all I find my fears

have gone and disappeared,

replaced by the sure certainty

that this one's for eternity.

Just under four minutes! Longer than it took me to decide that Barb was The One.

Music from Guster, with Do You Love Me?.

This song has a history for us. Every Christmas, Albuquerque runs the River Of Light, decking out the botanical gardens with sparkly decorations.

Last time I was able to go, this song was playing on the PA system. I noted some of the lyrics, never having heard it before... and my search was successful.

Sylvia knows we love her. Ice cream is proof. And she doesn't share with horses.