Today is a special holiday WFL Best Imaginations guest post about gratitude written by WFLU Senior TA Brooke. Brooke recently relocated to the Boston area with her husband and their five children. Prior to coming to Boston they lived in Nashville, TN and enjoyed the many beautiful trails and parks as well as many downtown adventures with live music everywhere!
Do you all know the song by Rascal Flatts – “Bless the Broken Road”? Do you all get misty eyed when you hear it? Well I definitely do, and I’m really not much of a crier but man it gets me every time. In fact just reading through the lyrics a bit before writing this post had me choking up a bit. 🙂
We ladies on the Dream Team like to get together once in a while outside of our business meetings to get to know each other better. We have quite a few new members so it’s lots of fun to bond together on our own time and strengthen our sisterhood in Wife for Life. At our last get together we were sharing about how we came to meet our husbands.
And WHOOSH! I was flooded with memories of my past life before I met my man. I lingered on these thoughts for many days about what all and who all I had gone through before meeting the one that made me feel so different from the rest.
I love these verses in the song,
Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like Northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to youI think about the years I spent just passing through
I’d like to have the time I lost and give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You’ve been there you understand
It’s all part of a grander plan that is coming true.
I’ve told my husband more than once that because I know now what I have with him, I wish I had saved every last kiss just for him and not wasted a single drop of my love on those other boys. When I was first getting to learn and hear more about his childhood from his siblings it was a lot of fun but a silly part of me felt a bit sad.
I wished and still sometimes day dream about knowing him before we met. He has really great friends that we still visit, and hearing about all their fun adventures in high school makes me wish I was there too.
Sometimes I get a bit carried away in my daydreaming and will share (or perhaps it’s actually over-sharing) these wild ideas about going back in time and trying to meet him in high school or his first years of college, knowing that I would later marry him. (He says I’m being a bit creepy when I talk like that.)
But really. If any of that had happened, or rather, hadn’t happened, would things be different now? Would things be different if I hadn’t had those “Northern stars”? If those other guys hadn’t broken my heart? Would I really appreciate the love I feel today for him? The love I receive from him today?
Probably not. Of course my husband is and would still be so sweet to me. But like I said before, he made me feel different than all the rest ever did. I don’t think I would have been able to recognize and appreciate the respect and love he shows me without those other experiences. Thinking about it makes me grateful for the road that led me to my husband, even though it was not perfectly smooth.
I hope you can be grateful for your “broken road” too. And share your thoughts with your husband! I did. Of course, he gave me a funny little smirk and even called me a bit “creepy”, but I know he loves hearing how much I love him.
What great thoughts, Brooke! What gratitude to see how the “broken roads” led you to your Sweetheart.
I feel gratitude for the timing and friends that were around when I met my husband. If I had taken a class one semester earlier, and if my girlfriend wasn’t just lingering after class one day to accompany me, I might not have had the opportunity and courage to approach my later-to-be man and praise his skills in a class. I feel thankful for that meeting and for all the days since! Thanks, Brooke!
Sarah, I’m impressed you are thankful not only for the “broken road” but for “all the days since”!
It’s taken me a long time, but I can finally, most sincerely day that I am SO GRATEFUL for the journey – my own “broken road” – because it led me to the life I have now, with a husband who puts all my greatest dreams to shame. 🙂
What a great post, Brooke!
Simply Beautiful Brooke – my husband and I both come from “broken roads” and even though I’ve often wished I could erase some of that for both of us, it’s definitely a part of who we are now and helped to prepare us to be ready for finding each other when we did. On a side note – my husband actually lived near me for a short time when he was 20 and I was 15. We even know for a fact that we were once at the same event. Even though I’d love to have a way to see how close we may have come to meeting then I’m so thankful we didn’t because that could have been awkward and I probably would have scared him away for good!