Is True Love Enough To Weather The Storms Of Life?

<blockquote> In true love, you attain freedom. When you love, you bring freedom to the person you love. If the opposite is true, it is not true love. You must love in such a way that the person you love feels free. ~Thich Nhat Hahn, from the book True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart </blockquote> Did you know that September 19, is national first love day? I married my first love. Met him in 1982, as a newly minted freshman on the campus of Southern Illinois University, in Carbondale. We married four years later on September 20th, 1986. My father also married his first love, his second, his third, his fourth, his fifth, and his sixth. You read that right. My dad was married a whopping six times before he turned thirty. Dad finally got the hang of it when he married my mother. She was lucky number seven. They stayed together for more than 50 years. She was his rock. She was with him when he took his final breath. Mom said Dad went peacefully, with an ethereal smile on his face. That made it easier for her to let him go. I cannot say the same. <h2>Thirty-Seven Years Ago</h2> My father walked me down the aisle. He gently lifted the veil off my face. He looked me square in the eyes and in a not-so-quiet voice said, “It's not to late to make a run for it!” The priest rolled his eyes in exasperation. My fiancée tightened his strong jaw. My dad devilishly winked at the priest before kissing me on the cheek. Then he turned and took his place on the pew beside my mortified mother. <a href="https://medium.com/middle-pause/is-true-love-enough-to-weather-the-storms-of-life-fe50607ba620">Read More</a>