Being Married Is Like Owning A Ranch

When you first see the ranch, there are some areas of the ranch that you think are really great. Maybe the house, or one particular meadow, or maybe a pond up in the hills. Yes, there are a few areas that need a little fixing up - the barn needs paint and a new roof. That one field over to the west is full of weeds. You figure you'll go to work on them when you get settled in and you'll have the perfect ranch in no time.

Once you're moved in and over time, you find some more areas you really love. The wood lot over on the East 40 is just wonderful. The fishing in the pond is even better than you'd dreamed.

But then there are some areas that are worse than you thought. You discover that the field full of weeds is also so rocky that you probably never will get much more than weeds to grow there. You just have to get used to the weeds. The spring that you saw over on the West end dries up. You had dreams of keeping a nice heard of cattle over there and now every time you go over there, it just reminds you of the broken dreams. You find its better to just stay away from that part of the ranch as much as possible.

As things progress, you're able to add two or three little parcels that were adjacent. They each have their blessings and their disappointments.

At the end of your life, you're able to sit there on the porch of the big house and look out over the place and see the beauty, and remember some of the great round ups you had.

Postscript: When I first thought about this anology, it seemed really creative and illustrative about marriage. Now that I've tried to write it down, it seems kind of stupid. Life is like that.