Remeber When …

Last night John and I were sharing stories with our kids. You know the kind, “Remember when …”

One of the stories that came up happened when our oldest son (now 21) was two-years-old. I was preparing dinner for company who was coming over and there was a wasp in the house. We had no fly swatter–not even a rolled newspaper–so my husband took a huge wad of paper towel and hurried over to the window where the wasp was buzzing around.

Knowing he only had one shot or he’d get stung, John slammed the wadded paper towel against the window … and his hand went right through it! Both of us stood there in shock at the sight of broken glass around our feet. Just then the doorbell rang. Our guests had arrived.

“Don’t you dare tell them about this,” John hissed at me, sweeping it up. Then he lowered the window blind. His face was red and I could see he was embarrassed. I have to say it was hard to talk to our guests all night and not mention the incident!

Sharing the story now, John and I had to laugh. “I was sure uptight back then,” he said.

I nodded. “We both were.” I remember getting upset at every little thing too. I got frustrated quickly and laughed rarely.

That’s the thing I love about been married 20 years. We’ve had good times, but really hard times too. The hard times make a broken window seem like no big deal, a non-issue.

When you’re first married often EVERYTHING seems like a big deal, including the way the hand towel in the bathroom is folded (or is not folded at all!) or arguments who took out the trash last time. If I could take a time machine back to those early years I’d tell myself to lighten up and to focus on what’s really important. I’d also give my husband a hug and a kiss and tell him not to worry, it’s just a broken window. I’d tell him he might as well laugh about it now, because down the road he would be.