Monday, August 26, 2013

I am Blessed by My Second Marriage

Chuck and I are in Florida in a hotel in Cocoa Beach which is near Cape Canaveral. Chuck is teaching today and the next two days. I want to share how blessed I feel. I am the happiest I have ever been in my whole life. As I stepped onto the beach after taking the sandy path from the hotel, I breathed in the fresh salt air that had not yet been tinged by the Florida humidity. As I was walking and looking at the ocean at 7:45 a.m. which, if you know me well, is totally unheard of for me to even be up at that time if I don't have to be, never mind walking the beach...I nodded at a few people who were also out early, walking. There I was with the gulls, pelicans and sand pipers, enjoying the morning. I am not a morning person, but today, looking at the beauty before me, I couldn't help but be. I gazed around me in awe, at the clouds in the sky, the sun peeking through with its rays shining on the water, and birds around me, and tears sprang to my eyes. At that moment, I felt SO grateful and blessed. A thought occurred to me and I realized that at that moment, and at this time in my life, I am truly the happiest I have ever been. My goals in life for as long as I can remember were to be happily in love with the man I was married to, and to be a mom. I am a mom of three grown children, so I have had and am still having that "mom" experience which has been very fulfilling to me. And now that I have met Chuck I am finally happily married! I wish Chuck had not been on his way to teach at that moment, but instead had been with me because it was the perfect time to share this new discovery with him. He is a very big part of the reason I am so happy. I took pictures of the clouds hovering over the water in different shades of white and gray. I listened to the sound of the waves as they rolled in over the beach. I slowly breathed in the salty air. I realized that being with Chuck and having made the choices I have made over the course of my lifetime, has brought me to a point where I am the happiest I have ever been. Chuck treats me like a queen. For all of my life, I have wanted to be loved by a man the way Chuck loves me. And I have wanted to be able to love a man with my whole heart. And that is the way that Chuck allows me to love him. It is very freeing not to have to change who I am in order to be with him. I am very grateful to both God and Chuck, and feel extremely blessed to be this loved by both of them, and living this life! I just had to share these feelings of joy because my "cup overfloweth". I am having an amazing life! Here are some pictures from our stay in Cocoa Beach, including the view from our hotel room window, the beach where I walked every morning with a free cup of coffee from the hotel, and the beach at sunrise one morning:

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Second Marriage: Bringing Others Hope!

A long time ago, when Chuck and I first fell in love, I wanted to shout about it from the rooftops! And with this blog, I am able to do that. I recently ran into someone who found this blog online and told me it's nice to see someone so in love in their second marriage. And that it gives them hope for an upcoming second marriage in their own life. That made me feel so good. I have always told Chuck that I wanted our marriage to make a difference in the lives of others. I didn't know how that would come to be. But I have heard from a few different people who told me that this blog is encouraging to them in their own lives and that they enjoy reading it. So, maybe our marriage won't be one for the history books, or we won't have a "made for TV movie" about our love. But, if we can inspire people in our day to day lives, or if people can be inspired about love and marriage the second time around through this blog, then that's just as good, and I will have made the dream o0f our inspiring people to come true. Well, I need to run now. Chuck is coming home from a business trip and I wanted to clean the house as a surprise for him. oops...if he reads this at the airport before he actually gets here, I guess it won't be a surprise for him...LOL! Oh well. The important thing is that it gets done. Happy Sunday afternoon everyone!