I M Perfect lady

Today I looked at my wedding album, a small, very small plastic one, with just a dozen or so pictures. Small amateur 3 x 2 snapshots of our special day. 

It's a reflection of how my old religion, and society in general, looked upon a couple who were expecting a child before marriage. 

We were supposed to keep it quiet and small.

Shameful.

Yet, I don't remember that day as being one of shame; but of happiness and love!

One of my biggest regrets was that we didn't have professional pictures taken.

These small blurry and now fading pictures are all we have of that day.

My estrangement leaps out as soon as I opened the album, for in it is Family.  

Pretty much just family.  My husband's best friend was his best man, so he was there; other than that, family.

All my memories from long ago, will now carry a bittersweet tone.

The girl in the pictures has come along way.

I love my innocence in not knowing what I didn't know. It is incredible to me how I lived beneath the closed mind.

How I was able to love and nurture, and parent, is beyond what my mind can hold?  In fact, I wasn't able to truly love, until I fell apart and found the real me.

The greatest challenge our marriage faced was my self-discovery and undoing the brainwashing of a strict religion.

Who I was when I married and who I would become, are so far apart.  

It is a tribute to my husband, for he allowed me to undo. 

We laid aside our marriage in order for me to discover who I was and in doing so made our marriage stronger. A marriage is as strong as the two individuals contained within.

Our greatest strength is our ability to be authentically original!

I love who I am so much more today, than who I was back in those pictures. I love the freedom I have to make choices, grow and expand Me.

Our marriage began with love, passion and unique individuals and it continues today!

Looking back, there was no way to predict how my journey would change me and how my marriage would support the freedom to be me.

I believe, love is free.

It has no chains or fences.

It is the wide open space of love.

Inclusive and requires the integrity of truth.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

We have come a long way together!