We don’t know how or if we will ever manage being apart for long periods of time. Parting never gets easier, but it is worth the time we spend together. Five days in Florida was all the time we had this time, and as always we sure made the most of it.
I was on a course for three days so I arrived on Tuesday, Mike joined me on Thursday evening, and we parted the following Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale airport, he to return to Canada and I journeyed back to Miami to catch my flight back home.
We were overjoyed to see each other Thursday after being separated for seven weeks. Just being together was enough. Getting a good night’s sleep was important to me as it is the only time I feel safe enough to sleep deeply. But we decided to make it into a fun-filled “vacation”. What seems like ordinary events to most people take on such joy when we do them together. Saturday we rode the bus and went to the mall. As I told him… he is one of the few men I know who enjoy strolling around a mall. For that I am grateful. Sunday was a day of relaxation at the beach. Monday we rode the water taxi for hours and strolled down Las Olas Boulevard, had cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory. Evenings we held each other tightly, contented at having created more memories to add to our bank to keep us going through the next separation.
When you only have short periods of time together like this, there is no time to be wasted on being angry with each other, or quarrelling over minor things. Some time is always spent on planning the next rendezvous so that we have something to look forward to. And to help us through the sad moments we remind ourselves that “we have each other”. We have also added to that phrase the fact that “it could have been worse”.
