In the early days of our relationship, Dave and I could sit and talk for hours. Sunday mornings in our little apartment were spent drinking coffee and talking about anything and everything. We could debate, disagree, and sometimes convince each other to come to our side of thinking. We learned about who the other was, where each of us came from and we grew more and more in love and in friendship with each other. The foundation of our relationship was built in our tiny tiny 1 bedroom apartment so many years ago.
And through the years (11 years together...can you believe it??!!??), we grew out of that tiny apartment into a somewhat bigger one, we became engaged, we bought our house, we got married, we travelled and we started our family. And here we are on another Sunday morning so many years later. Although we aren't able to share in the hours of conversation like we used to, it is so nice and reminiscent of our younger days when we are actually able to have a really good talk.
Of course politics are a hot topic right now and for the first time in my life, I am actually really engaged in this election. I am embracing my opinion and I am not afraid to say how I feel. Financial stability, oil dependency, foreign policy...you name it, I will (to the best of my ability) tell you how I feel! :) So politics are a front burner sort of topic in our house. But this morning after debating, disagreeing and bringing each other to the other side, we moved on....
I was showing Dave something I have been working on for my sister-in-law and asked for his opinion. He looked at it, said it was nice and then I said, but what is the but...he said, "Hey, I am not creative, just a critic". And I retorted with "the story of my life" ;). And a few minutes later, Dave had me google the following passage that was written by Teddy Roosevelt...which I am a little ashamed to say I have never read or heard of before.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat
...and after reading and pondering what this said, I realized something that in 34 years I haven't quite been able to get. It really doesn't matter if you try and fail, at least you tried and you shouldn't care what others think because you will never know what it feels like to succeed if you don't try and if you fail, well, at least you tried in the first place and that is a lot more than others can say they have done!
So, here we are on a Sunday morning and my husband, partner and best friend was able to bring me to his side of thinking yet again.
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