Last week was such a blur. A midweek holiday really threw me for a loop. But I really enjoyed the time off and spent it sleeping in, lounging by the pool and capped it off with a Columbia Blowfish baseball game and fireworks! Despite the oppressive heat (100+ degrees) we really enjoyed ourselves.
What I did not enjoy was getting up the following morning at 4:30am for Randy's gallbladder surgery. He's been have on and off again pain for the last several months. After a few trips to the doctor, it was decided that it was time to take it out. With his surgeon out of town this week, the outpatient surgery was set for Thursday morning at 5:30am. All in all, everything went extremely well and we were amazingly back home at 11:30am.
His recovery has been good with general and expected pain and discomfort. Lots of time spent on the couch and eating homemade chicken and dumplings (the dumplings were of the frozen prepared variety but I think that still counts as homemade).
Over the last few days, his surgery and recovery has got me thinking about love. Despite what we'd like to think about relationships (I'm looking at you 50 Shades of Grey and Magic Mike), they are not always fun, exciting and happy. Marriage isn't easy. It’s not a fantasy, its real life. And real life is COMPLICATED, people. I think we all know that but I think it’s easy to forget when we look at other people’s lives or movies and it all seems so perfect and put together. (By the way-I’m not done on the subject of recent popular movies and books as mentioned above. But that is for another post.)
Randy and I, like any other couple that has ever existed, have and will continue to have ups and downs. His surgery last week has a way of smashing up all the good and bad into an array of emotions: anxious, worried, sad, annoyed, relieved, glad, exhausted. Seeing him in the recovery room, still somewhat sedated, I felt such love for him. Perhaps even more than the day I walked down the isle towards him. It made me realize in this crazy, fast-paced life we are living that we need to take more time to stop, appreciate and take care of each other. Sometimes we need “wake-up” calls to jolt us and shake the tunnel vision we have. We need to look around at the people closest to us and LOVE them. Let them know we love them by showing them (if that means fetching ginger ale and pain meds, so be it). Yeah, we aren't always going to do this 100% right. But that doesn't mean we need to stop trying. So take a moment today to send an e-mail, make a call, or give a hug to someone you love. There is no better time than now!
*M