The weekend was extra busy as friends were married Saturday and had a few other events leading up to the wedding. It was a bit unique in taking place on the dive boat as all the attendees were either family or members of the diving community – in some cases, both. The couple have been together for quite some time and like many do, had reasons for waiting to make the decision about getting married.

Not surprisingly, different stories about meetings and marriages came out during conversations. There were plenty of people present whose first marriage didn’t work out and the week before, other friends of ours were talking about how they were high school sweethearts and that was a long time ago. In my novels and especially short stories, I have a mix of falling in love, finding love in unexpected places, coping with divorce, realizing it was time to leave a relationship – all those “highs and lows” that are part of real life.

I’ve posted before about my belief in love at first sight and the opposite side of coming to terms that not everyone finds the kind of love that results in marriage or other long term commitment. As for “happily ever after”, that can also mean different things to different people. Marriage does require the ability to deal with “for better or worse”, in “sickness and in health”, because life can be difficult to the point of almost unbearable at times. Our thirty-sixth anniversary was last month and in case I haven’t said it lately in a post, I am married to one of the most wonderful men in the world. On the other hand, I’ll be having lunch later today with two friends; one of whom divorced decades ago and decided “once was enough for her”.

So, what does the future hold for the newly wed couple? Who knows, but they do seem to have a good start.