Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop

I had this all written for Mama Kat's Writers Workshop yesterday. However, I didn't save it to the file, for publishing while I was in line waiting for food club food, and I can't locate it on this darned, but wonderful, computer, so...I guess I will have to start afresh.

The prompt I chose: What does marriage mean to you?
My marriage means everything to me. From the time I was very young, I would imagine myself doing the things my mom did for my dad. That is all I wanted to be: a wife, and a mom! I have always felt that our marriage was literally made in heaven. From the first time I heard his voice, I KNEW there was something special. We were literally brought together. I have never, ever doubted the Lord's hand (along with 7 spirits on the other side of the veil doing their own brand of manipulating!) in bringing us together. Our marriage has always been based on the Lord, on our belief in Heavenly Father, in Jesus Christ, and in His plan for families to be together forever.

We were blessed to start our eternity in the Mesa Temple, and we have spent over 29 years building that marriage. Thus, marriage is a journey, not a destination, as I found out long ago. Marriage is learning to love the things he loves. It is catching grasshoppers for him so HE can fish, because he is always busy giving the ones he catches to the boys. It is helping him cut up, grind, and package an elk in your own kitchen. It is going from speaker store to speaker store with the Pink Floyd Album with the clocks on it and listening to speaker after speaker so he can get the ones that sound best. It is sitting in a recliner, with a manual typewriter on your lap, typing letters to schools advertising your dj business (you are in the recliner because you are preggo with baby #4 and he ends up being posterior-thus the tremendous pelvic pain you endure every day till this 9 pound baby delivers.) It is pushing on the brakes to bleed them, even when they just never feel right. It is helping him pick songs for a bride to dance to at her reception. It is spending the money he earns wisely, because he is working 14 hours a day at three jobs so you can be home to put your babies on the bus and listen to the wonders of fourth grade, third grade and second grade when they come home. It is listening to him chew his food, because he enjoys the things you make so much. It is praying for him when he takes his final exam for his business degree, and then taking your six kids to the school parking lot to decorate his car in celebration of his upcoming graduation. Marriage is holding his hand when he is sick, making his favorite garlic soup. It is setting his vitamins out and getting his lunch ready in the dark so you don't wake him when you go to the food bank. Marriage is getting frustrated at times. It is wishing you could just have him home when he is away. It is hiking just a bit slower so you can have someone to talk to. It is scratching his back, rubbing his sore hands, and carefully rubbing the place where he nearly cut his thumb off when he was cutting wood for a project of yours. Marriage is getting angry, and wanting to say things, and then shutting up, because you see it might be hurtful. It is hearing the angry words he may say, and realizing the exhaustion he must be feeling. Marriage is sending out one more resume while he stands in the entryway, looking at the tools he has always used, while he assures his six kids that he will get a job soon. Marriage is the comfort you get when you walk by the room and see him on his knees asking for guidance. Marriage is holding him when his dear grandpa dies. Marriage is eating things you would not eat normally, and finding you might even like them...except sushi! Marriage is the greatest adventure, the greatest inspiration, the greatest challenge...and above all, the greatest gift. Marriage between a man and a woman is central to our Creator's plan...His plan for us to be happy, now and through eternity. It can bring out our worst, and bring us up to be better than we ever, ever would have been on our own. Marriage is a gift, and I am so thankful I was blessed to receive this special, this wonderful, this trying, and this magical gift.