Honeymooners

My new husband and I returned from our honeymoon several weeks ago. For the most part, we were happy idyllic young lovers looking through rose colored glasses upon a beautiful world. Of course, that is pretty easy to achieve on a cruise ship upon the Gulf of Mexico where all your needs are catered to, and you occasionally stop someplace exotic and new like Cozumel.

We had so much fun. We toured the Mayan ruins at Dzibilchaltun outside of Progresso in the Yucatan. We toured the Mayan ruins on Cozumel. We ate wonderful meals and enjoyed each others company. Then we came home.

Life hit us fast and hard when we returned. We arrived home late Saturday night after being delayed by a fog that shut down the port preventing us from docking for about four hours. We woke up to go to church the next morning. (He's the pastor.) And we arrived just on time. A few moments later, one of our church members passed away right there in the pew.

Our life just sort of went from one thing to another thing in a rush including my love's stomach virus. So here we are still newly married, but so very different from the couple on the cruise. There are no rose colored glasses. No one is taking care of our every need and whim. We must now learn to cooperate with each other. I've learned that he talks a LOT. I don't. He's learned that I need quiet time and plenty of rest or I am a crab apple. I am learning that I am very short-tempered when I wake up. And I am learning to bite my tongue and apologize for unnecessary crabbiness.

The funniest moment to me was when we had only been in real life for a day or two and both of us had similar thoughts. I was wondering when he was going back home, and he was trying to figure how late we were going to be out so he could make his long drive home. For a second, we had forgotten that we are married and there won't be anymore separating and going our own way at the end of the day. We don't really want to, because we really do love each other.

A honeymoon is not real life. We shouldn't be surprised that when we get back to real life that there will be a period of adjusting. We are two selfish ('cause face it, we're all selfish) people trying to mesh our lives together. With God's help, we can do it and do it well. So...welcome to real life honeymooners!