Dear IF readers,

For some reason, I have quite a few friends that are over 65 years of age. I have always liked people with so much quiet and wisdom all at once. Two of those friends are Eileen and Donald. My husband and I have known them as a couple for over 5 years. We have invited them for breakfasts, lunches, dinners and family celebrations. And they have returned our invitations with their gracious generosities as well. Eileen and I share the same birthday and last year we started a special tradition of celebrating together. They have become a part of our family community. A picture of them riding an elephant sits on my bookcase in our bedroom. They are world travellers. They are volunteers in community organizations. They laugh alot and tell stories, I love their stories. Eileen and Donald love to sit with people making eye contact and chatting. They are exquisite storytellers. I will never forget a trip they took to Egypt and Eileen’s description of her spiritual experiences there. Then there was Donald’s trip to his family’s homeland of Ireland. They both paint the visuals with such colors and detail, you are riding on the bus with them, the countryside twirling along, touching the gravel, smelling the cooking.

But I know that what also drew them to me was that they have been a couple for so many years. Sometime in the last five years of my own marriage to John, I thought to myself, “My parents divorced, and my in laws have passed away, who will show me how to survive this thing called marriage?” I needed mentors. Then along came Eileen and Donald. They are a deiightful couple in all the ways that couples can be. They love one another and find each other human and muselike all at once. They tease and joke and tell stories. Eileen and Donald are so complimentary that I think of them all at once, but seperate as well. They allow each other’s space with such respect and grace. They seem to weave in and out of each other’s days, weeks and years. What they share is immeasurable. What they have achieved on their own is mountains. I knew I needed them in my journey. I needed an example of survival with humor and love, not just duty and obligation. What they have taught me most is that forgiveness gives the spirit youth and bouyancy like no other virtue in the world. And if you stick around long enough, and find the crests that come right after a terrible trough of pain and hardship, you can fall in love with one another, again and again. As I enter my 10 year wedding anniversary year, I chuckle to myself that this thing called longevity surprises my wandering gypsy soul and awakens it like no other. A long marriage is now a goal of mine. It offers me such excitement to see what is next.

Good day IF readers, blessings, Cat Wayland

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