One down (one to go…)

I need to stop making that joke, or Wylie will hurt me. More than she has already.

A year ago we were here

enjoying the beautiful Co. Down weather (technically we were in Co. Down, just over the river at Moyallon School)

This year we were here

Now I don’t want you to view these 2 photos as in some way symbolic of the state of our marriage.

Perhaps this would be more appropriate

Kidding… honestly…

Anyhow.

A year in we went away to stay in a house that used to be a stable, surrounded by other houses that wouldn’t pass any modern day building codes. But hey it’s all very nice.

We climbed hills

And got photos to prove we did it

And when not enjoying “happy monk” related delicacies

we entered into the Wylie family tradition

Yes I know. We can really party…

Marriage is a little bit like being beaten with a bag of door knobs. It’s not exactly easy but it has deep and long lasting effects on your life.

I have been more deeply changed in the last year than I perhaps ever have in my life before. Not all of those changes have been good I’m sure but I am grateful for them. Most of this comes from being married to a person who knows the importance of honesty, integrity and the fact that neither one of us is enough. Amen to that.

Here’s to a few more is all I can say

 

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Better Together

We got married.

It was kind of fun.

Most of you were there. Thanks for coming, we appreciate it.

Once me and Simy had got the bouncy castle sorted I finally had to let go of the reigns and let the party run itself. We’d spent so long organising the damn thing that it was hard to let go of being in control. I have issues with control I think.

But you ask people to do stuff for you and you give them their job and you let them run with it. And they nailed it. Absolutely nailed it. Everyone.

One would think I should have been nervous about getting married. But not a bit of it. I was more worried as to whether it would piss down and we’d arranged for 300 people to stand in a tend in a car park in the rain. I would have felt bad if that had happened.

As for getting married I was cool with that. It seemed like a great idea. And I still think it is so why would I worry? I trusted Wylie would turn up and she did.

I still get all teary thinking about the speeches. I missed my Da. I still do. I always will. I suppose that’s how it works.

Here’s to the Nylies. (Copyright Deb Byrne, all rights reserved)

She must and shall go free

I’ve been married a month, and while Bonhoeffer is here talking about “bearing each others burdens” in the context of Christian fellowship it seemed a pretty damn fine exposition on marriage.

It is first of all, the freedom of the other person that is a burden to the Christian. The other’s freedom collides with his own autonomy, yet he must recognise it. He could get rid of this burden by refusing the other person his freedom, by constraining him and thus doing violence to his personality, by stamping his own image upon him.

But if he let’s God create his image in him, he by this token gives him his freedom and himself bears the burden of this freedom of another creature of God. The freedom of the other person includes all that we mean by a person’s nature, indiviuality and endowment. It also includes his weaknesses and oddities which are such a trial to our patience, everything that produces frictions, conflicts and collisions among us. To bear the burden of the other person means involvement with the created reality of the other, to accept and affirm it, and, in bearing with it, to break through to the point where we take joy in it.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Life Together

All the first pages

The best bit about getting married – doubling your library

On marriage

I got baptised and engaged to be married to the wonderful transfarmer all in the same day.

Surely there’s some kind of special prize for that.

In lieu of an engagement ring I decided just to scribble reserved on her left ring finger with a biro.

Unfortunately this means we have to plan a wedding. Part of that really excites me the other part wants to elope to Vegas and get married by a guy doubling as an Elvis impersonator. We’d even get $20 of free chips for the casino too.