I found this picture as I was digging through wedding galleries last week.  It’s a soft and sweet sentiment for a wedding day and I love the idea that regardless of how anything else shakes out, it’s the two of us – husband and wife – together forever, two against the world.

Photography: Samantha James Photography

However it’s not really been until recently I’ve really began to reflect on how important that is.  Coworkers, friends, life scenarios, they all come and go.  But marriage is forever, regardless of what’s going on in the world around you.  So you better pick someone amazing to be by your side, right?

I’ve really felt the impact of this lately.  I have different parenting philosophies, thoughts on love, political ideals and general ways of living life that many of those around me.  Not to say that my way or someone else’s way is better or worse, just different.  Everyone doesn’t see eye to eye and some days I feel like I’m constantly having to justify my reasoning to _________ (insert nearly anyone’s name here) for EVERY LITTLE DESCION I MAKE.  Having a spouse that gets you, whose line of thinking (for the most part) aligns with my own is so helpful.  There are enough battles in the world, I don’t need to add ones with my spouse to the list.

Even more so, is the realization that we’ve moved again.  My best friend is now 3 hours away.  Other friends are nearly as far.  Family is scattered throughout the state.  Phone calls and social media are great for connecting, but there’s an emptiness that they can’t fill.  There’s nothing quite like real human connections, an in person connection.  And if we’re being completely honest here, making friends as an adult is hard.  It never came easy to me a kid either, but if anyone had told me how much harder it would get with age, perhaps I’d have tried a littler harder back then?  Probably not, but it’s a thought.  I have my family around me day in and day out.  We have a busy little life so most days I don’t notice the lack of socialization.  But when I stop to think about it, I realize how crazy we were to move to a town I’d only ever heard about, an area that I had very little knowledge of and where we have zero friends and family nearby.  Plus working from home, it means that forced coworker acquaintances that could potentially turn into more, are nonexistent.

This isn’t a cry for help or someone to come and be my friend.  But rather, a reminder to hold onto the relationships you have.  It’s a note of gratitude for my husband and having someone constant by my side.  We may have chosen to move and leave some people that we love, but if we hadn’t left, that doesn’t mean that another circumstance in our life may not have changed.  There are so many moving pieces and variables in our lives that can vary in an instant.  This a note to encourage you to build a strong marriage, work and it and don’t rely on those around you for your happiness.  Create that happiness in your own home.  Every season of life isn’t the same, but right now it’s just me and my family doing life together.  And the battles that came in the earlier years have proven to strengthen the relationship we have right now, so that it can be just the two of us and the joy that doing life together brings.