A Letter (Obviously) on Friendship

Dear reader,

Today's prompt is to write a letter to my readers.  Ha!  Joke's on them, isn't' it?  All of my posts are letters.


My cousin, Katherine, got married last weekend.  Here we are (oh my!) about twenty years ago:

The whole day was lovely.  She is one of the most genuinely kind people I've ever met, and from what I could tell after meeting her husband for the first time and hearing what others had to say about him, he is the same way.  Seeing them together was truly awesome and inspiring.  They were glowing, and it is obvious that they are extremely good friends.    That's something I've been thinking about alot lately, and Katherine and John Ross only made those thoughts even more apparent to me: the idea of a husband and wife being friends.
It seems only too easy to get bogged down with responsibilities and the other drags of adulthood.  (How I envy Peter Pan some days.)  I tend to see how those obstacles affect our marriage in terms of romance and emotional or spiritual intimacy with each other.  I don't think that until recently I realized how much our friendship is tested too.
I think that Jered and I, or maybe just I forgot about having fun together.  I focused on those other areas of intimacy, but not an honest to goodness friendship for too long.  I knew I wanted to feel like Jered's best friend, but I thought of it mainly, if not solely in terms of communication.  I wanted to hear what was on his mind and heart.  I forgot about fun.  And laughter.
So that is my newest goal these days.  To have fun with Jered.  And maybe more importantly, for him to have fun with me, even if that means we are going to ride that scooter until my eyes are completely dried out and bloodshot from the wind, or spend the whole of Saturday morning at the lake, fishing...  (At least I can work on my tan.)  I'm going to attempt to be a better sport.
And all that's not to say that I've lost sight of my dream of maintaining a lovely romantic and deeply-rooted relationship as well.  I still desire to know the depths of my husband's heart and soul.  I know the fairy tale marriage is not considered realistic, but it seems to me a good deal of that is determined by choice and the effort we are willing to put forth.  No, we will not live happily ever after, but I don't think that means we can't have a blissful marriage.  I think focusing on friendship will make that easier to do.
You are probably reading this, thinking, "And how long have you two been together?  You're just now deciding this?"  I'm just as shocked as you are at my density.
Anyway, here's to remembering the friendship and the fun that made me fall in love with this sweet man in the first place.  And to much more laughter in the coming days.
(Photo credit to the extremely talented McKenna Thatcher)
Have a wonderfully fun weekend.
Aim