It’s been said that you shouldn’t marry the person you can live with, but that you should marry the one you can’t live without.

I think we can add to that, don’t you?

Marry not the person who simply brings something to the table, but who can also bring something to your soul during the times when you both may be down and table-less.

Don’t marry a person because they can support you financially, but instead marry someone who makes you emotionally rich and spiritually wealthy.

Don’t marry someone because they’re good looking — marry someone who looks for the good in every situation.

Don’t marry someone just because they fit into your timeframe — marry someone you know will stand the test of time…even if that union comes ten years after you hoped it would come.

Don’t marry someone because you think your kids will be beautiful — marry them because of their beautiful, child-like sense of wonder and play.

I realize that coming from someone who has never been married, nor close to it, these words may seem odd, misplaced or idealistic. But the latter is a word that I’ll gladly welcome — because if we can’t have our ideal in mind as we look down the road of Forever, what are we really going after?

Tonight I am thankful for knowing that every pot has a lid, and that every squirrel really can find a nut. May we seek that which makes us whole for years to come, that which sustains our union through the good and bad and that which can support us through all kinds of weather — the cold, the icy, the warmth and the hail…the inevitable weather of life.