17 Years of Love

“Not all day every day, but every day” – Charlotte SITC

This quote is from the scene in the Sex In the City movie, at Charlotte’s baby shower, when Charlotte tells Samantha that she is happy with Harry every day “not all day everyday, but every day”, and Carrie tells her she just compared her relationship to chemo. I refer to this quote all the time. It really resonated with me. My husband and I are High School sweethearts. We’ve been together for 17 years now. We got married after 10 years together. We have now been married 7 years and have 2 beautiful daughters. I am truly happy every day.

I am not a religious person. I do believe in love and positive energy. I live each day with the intent on showing everyone I encounter an act of happiness or love. A simple smile, or a compliment, sometimes something more. I put an effort in making sure it’s a genuine, eye contact smile, not just a polite grin. I am aware of my privilege, of my fortune, and of my success. Fortune and success are different in eyes of others. But I feel that I have everything I need, and it humbles me daily. I have a husband I love and can depend on. I know without a doubt he loves me back. He is my best friend, my biggest supporter and a wonderful father to my children. He works hard to take care of me and our family and I am grateful. Our children are healthy and thriving. I am able to stay home with them and witness their childhood. I have a beautiful home, it’s never as clean as I’d like because we have too much stuff. This is a problem, again, I am humbled to have. As I go about my day, thankful in all my love, I want to share it with others. I want others to know they too are worthy of this kind of love.

I thank the universe every day for these blessings. For the ability to see all the good in my life. For the love that fills my home. It’s not all easy. My husband works long hours and is rarely home for bedtime, what I refer to as “the witching hour”. The kids keep me more than busy. I have a laundry basket that is never empty and am constantly out of energy to keep up with the toddler and baby, and housework. I am the president of our Moms Club chapter this year, and I love supporting other moms, but that adds to my plate. My blog is a needed creative outlet, but it’s time consuming. Everyday I am overwhelmed and feel like a failure in at least one area of my life. Being positive is one of the ways I am able to stay afloat. I am beyond blessed that my husband understands how hard it is to be a mom, housewife, and woman. I know he loves me because he puts up with my crazy.

There are many nights my husband is greeted by an exhausted and depleted wife. After a long day of working at the office he comes home to find me falling apart or holding on by a thread. He always uses this opportunity to remind me the accomplishments of the day. After 17 years he can talk me off the ledge and make me feel like super mom. Our communication is something we both have worked very hard on to ensure our marriage stays strong. We talk about anything and everything and we are always honest with each other. Keeping the criticism constructive and giving positive feedback is one more way we practice our positivism. We have grown and gone through so many changes together, as long as we can be open about our feelings and respect each others outlooks I believe we will make it through anything.

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We are not happy and positive all day, every day. We too have our moments of frustration and anger. It’s important to get it out so we can work together to fix the issue. Parenting has taught us so much more about communication and patience. Each day we grow together as a couple, and as a family. The youngest just turned one in November, and now we are back to making sure we spend some time on romancing us. Being a couple is just as important as making sure we each get time to be our individual self. Making ourselves a priority is important, but making sure we keep our relationship a priority is imperative to growing together, not just alongside one another. It’s a wonderful thing to experience this with a partner.

Not all day every day, but every day. At least twice a day I feel truly, madly, deeply happy.  I feel so fortunate every night as I lay next to him for the day we were blessed to live together. Every morning as I sip my coffee, and watch him eat breakfast with our girls, I feel beyond happy for the life we have created together. 17 years of love. 17 years of love fuels my positivism. As I go about my day I wish this kind of happiness upon each person I pass. In my smile, my hello, is my wish for them that they too are fortunate to find the life filled with love. To find this kind of love you must first love yourself, and that is such a difficult thing for us humans. So I will love you, without knowing you, so you will believe you are worthy of love. When I breathe it will be breath of positive vibrations so you will open your heart to those you come across today. Your true love is waiting for you! Even if you are already married to them, they are waiting for the mad, deep love you have bottled up inside. Let it free. You are worthy of happiness and love, and so are they.

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