A celebration of two milestones.

That's milestones, not mill stones.

Recently, we headed south to the good old sunshine state. We have not been there since the children were much younger. We decided that a holiday was much needed and since we did not head further south this winter, O Cuba I missed you, my beloved in her usual way found us an amazing holiday at an even better deal. This amazing woman of Dutch descent has made it a practice to find us the best holiday and the best price. Suffice it to say that she found us a great deal. We had a great time in the pool and everywhere else. We are already planning next years trip.

Oh yes, the milestones. On April 4/11 my beloved and I celebrated 30 years of married bliss.  Now truthfully no one has ever had a marriage that was perfect and our is not. However, over the years we have learned that two key factors are necessary to make a marriage work: they are Love and Respect. They are based on the biblical directive that a "husband should love his wife and a wife should respect her husband".

We have learned that these two make a marriage much better. We are thankful for the amount of time we have had together and we remain best friends as well as lovers and never strangers. We have also learned that communication is not the key to marriage, understanding is.

The other milestone is that while we were in Florida I celebrated my 25th anniversary of working for the Crown Corporation that is under the auspices of the Ontario Ministry of Labour. Twenty-five years of doing pretty much the same job is a long time. I love my job and enjoy getting up every a.m. to attempt to meet the challenges that are presented to me.

I have much to be thankful for. These are not millstones. Sadly some people see their marriage and their jobs as such. It can be so much better, trust me. It's based on our attitude. We need to have an attitude of servanthood rather than one of authority.

Happy May 24/11 weekend. I wish I was sitting in Lakeside Park as the RUSH song says:

"sitting in the sand to watch the fireworks display" 

Sadly, those days are gone, but the dreams and the memories live on forever.