17. Tackling Travel Trials Together
Recently, we travelled back from the Gambia to home, and had a sleepless overnight (11pm - 5am) flight on a budget airline, followed by a 5 hour layover, after which the flight was delayed a further 6 hours. We got home with 3 hours to eat and pack and get to sleep before midnight, as we had to wake up at 5 to catch a train at 6am, to travel 9 hours up to David's relatives for a very important wedding. Talk about tired travelers! But the amazing thing was, we tackled the traveling trials together. We kept each other positive, kept company, really took the time to catch up, and didn't let it get the best of us. Somehow, we chose to keep a positive outlook and make the best of things. Perhaps because recently things have been challenging and we've seen the outcome of letting ourselves succumb to stress (travel and otherwise). I'm not sure why the initial reaction was to choose positivity, but it really snowballed and reinforced itself and we ended up having a really good time together - in fact, maybe the best-quality time we've had together in months. All because we chose to make the best of things and move forward with what we were dealt. We chose not to let the things we couldn't change dictate what we actually had power over. We teamed up and faced it together rather than stewing alone or lashing out. I'm taking this as a lesson for marriage in general, and as evidence that we can apply it. We can choose to be team-mates, to tackle trials together, and to choose a positive outlook in the face of things beyond our control. Marriage is not something easy and neither is life, and neither are sleepless and delayed and back to back international journeys, but that doesn't get to decide how we react and what the quality of our relationship is day by day. We get to choose that. And although of course we will struggle and fall during a hopefully very long journey, I am very happy that we've shown ourselves one example of choosing to enjoy our marriage despite sleeplessness and change. I love being married to someone who chooses that with me, in this always-changing world and as human as I am.
