Three years, three hours and eight minutes

Well, today is a watershed day in the personal history of Billy Gray. Today marks my third year of being married to the always cheerful, ever-lovin' Megan (Jackson) Gray. We've had some wonderful times over the three years we've been married, from a whirlwind trip down to Florida where we found that God does answer prayers to keep rain away, to a crazy, improbably, 24-hour road trip through most of Wisconsin and Minnesota, to the birth of our daughter, little Evelyn, who right at this moment is probably spitting up on a piece of furniture or carpet.

It's been a great ride.

I think one of the things I like best about being married is that it takes the pressure off. I think back to how much mental energy I expended on questions like "What kind of person is the right person for me to marry? Is there just one right person? How will the relationship that I'm in turn out? What flaws and faults are enough to have me walk away? etc. etc." That was a lot of worrying and wondering, a lot of mental angst built up over an (admittedly important) decision. But the feeling of having that finished, of settling in and being committed to this wonderful person that chose me--it's remarkable in that the mental angst is missing. I compare it to having a headache that won't go away. You live with the pain of the headache, because there's nothing that you can do about it. The headache tints every part of your life, from waking in the morning to going to bed at night. It's not like you can't function while you have the headache, rather, you learn to cope with the pain. So it is for all of you unmarried single guys out there.

Of course, there might be a few out there who believe that marriage is a mistake, that it isn't possible for one person to commit to another for 10 years, much less a life, that they're having too much fun to get married and settle down. To those people, I say--you don't know what you're missing, my friend.

You don't know what you're missing.

Happy anniversary, Megan.

BillG