Marriage Makes Me Marvel

Will here -

As Clare has noted in her posts, marriage has been anything but "settling." In a way, of course, Clare and I do feel much more settled now than ever before in the sense that we have found our life partner, that person with whom we have each decided to spend the rest of our lives. To repeat: the rest of our lives. That is a big deal, and I think it is precisely because it is such a big deal that getting / being married has thrown not just our relationship into stark relief, but also our own lives and what we want out of them. Essentially, marriage is the first decision that we have made that bears with it the connotation of an entire lifetime. Neither one of us entered into it lightly, and neither one of us has since been able to shake the shocking feeling of mortality that comes with a lifetime decision.

Not that this is a bad thing. In fact, I think we'd both say it's been quite the opposite - finally, a full-fledged, no-bones-about-it reason to take a step back, re-evaluate, re-examine, re-set the compass, re-read the maps, re-think the pathway, re-visit our inner selves, re-explore what really makes us tick.