The Colour And The Shape...

One Year ‘inside’ has gone by so quickly. I’m a resident of The Institution. Ben has survived a full year of me without enduring a fiery death by temper. That is a success worth celebrating, if ever there has been one!

We made a decision to spend at our anniversary at the Preston Temple. Marriage has been incredible for us. Okay, I’ll speak for myself: Marriage has been incredible for me. I love knowing that I will be with Ben forever. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I have a strong belief that everyone is entitled to that blessing and gift. It is not particular to a time or place or people that God has decided are better than all the others. As His children, He wants to give us all the same blessings – depending on our faithfulness alone; not discriminating against us because of where we were born, when we lived or the faith of our parents. As such, on our wedding anniversary we wanted to ensure that someone else can have that blessing that has been given to us already. We took some of my ancestors’ names to the temple and there we acted on their behalf to be sealed together for all eternity. It was an incredible, overwhelmingly beautiful experience.

The temple is a beautiful place. It is simple in a lot of ways but each detail of its interior (and exterior) is executed in a sophisticated and is of the highest quality. No corners have been cut in the craftsmanship involved in creating it. If you ever get chance to look around a “Mormon” temple (before the dedication for sacred work to take place there it is open to the public) take it!

When sitting in one of the rooms in the temple, I had a chance to look at the chandeliers that adorned the walls and ceiling. Maybe my eye is just naturally drawn to shiny things! Each crystal was shining, sparkly and casting off beautiful colours that were just so fantastic to see. It got me thinking about those crystals and how precious each one was – but how it would look nothing on its own. Imagine one of those things. It would be sad, lonely and purposeless; but string some of them together and then a certain elegance appears. They are suddenly fit for their purpose, more able to achieve and everything looks so much better. Still, a chain of crystals does nothing on its own. The real magic happens when they are placed near to a source of light. They suddenly flash in colour and are able to accomplish the radiant purpose that they were designed for. I like obvious analogies like that; especially when it is shown so visually to me. We were at the temple to help in forging that link to hold the crystals together; but it would all mean nothing without the Saviour.

I loved how all the different colours were cast by different crystals, too. Our anniversary celebrations brought us to Paris where I was able to further expand upon this thought in Notre-Dame Cathedral.  I often like to use the thousand words instead of the picture, but in this case I have to put a few thousand pictures up just so you can see the beauty of this place!  

I think I've been to Notre Dame before but it's never really blown me away like it did this time. The thing that I loved the most were the breathtaking stained-glass windows.  Looking at them, I remembered the colours from the chandeliers at the temple and I was suddenly so grateful for each colour; even the ones that aren't my preference on their own. 

We're each colourful. We have so much personality and we look different even when the light is shining through us. Just because one of us has a purple personality and another a yellow doesn't mean either of us is wrong. Together, we're beautiful.  

Ben and I have been married for a year now and yet STILL he is an entirely different colour to me. Isn't it amazing that I can sit pouring my heart, ideas and all out to a man for a year and he remains beautifully, entirely himself? I love that we are all individual. I love that Ben has a colour that's different to mine.  

Ben being different to me is something that I've had to remind myself of in order to cherish him properly. Especially when he does something that I would never do. 

For example; (theoretically) I would never miss a eurostar train. I'd have the time written down everywhere and the tickets would be in my hand so much as I checked them that they'd look worn by the time I got on the train. Some call it neurotic. I call it prepared. Ben doesn't have this characteristic. He's the kind of person that I couldn't guarantee turning up at the right time and place to his own funeral. (Thankfully, he's got lots of living time left to learn!)   

 As the neurotic/prepared one, the lack of this character trait in my husband can be quite frustrating at times as it makes it so hard to understand why everyone isn't like that. We, as humans, have the specific weakness of assuming that all other human beings have the same strengths that we have. I'm really grateful that that isn't the case. How could we ever appreciate each other if we were all the same colour?

Our variety as human beings is what makes us so special. Added to that, each of us carry traits of our Heavenly Father so we are all illuminated by light which sometimes makes our differences even more obvious.    

Marriage really does bring together the strengths and weaknesses of each partner. It's amazing the amount that you can learn from each other. While in Paris, I loved introducing Ben to some of the things in this world that I love the most. I feel like he saw it with a Harriet-tint: as though he was looking at it through my stained-glass. He therefore saw what I saw in Disneyland; he got to see why the Sacre-Coeur is my favourite landmark in Paris; and he even gained an idea of why I loved Monet so much growing up.  

Even places you have been to before, and seen before, have a new meaning when you are seeing them together.  Plus, you learn new things about each other. Like, who knew that Ben would be so scared of heights on a block of solid stone?  

The reality is - we survived a year. I feel like within this time we've learned a lot. Most of all, I feel like we've learned a lot of loyalty to each other. I feel like we have started to really feel the reality of being our own family. It's been great fun, as well. I mean, just a glance at our blog shows such a myriad of things we've done over the past year!   

And the reason why any of the fun and games mean anything is that; wherever I am in the world, whether we get to play and travel or whether we're more restricted; this is the person I want to spend my time and my life with. He is the most important part of any holiday! 

One year down --- and I'm sad that it has gone by in a way, but grateful for all the colours I've seen and all the ways in which we've grown as a couple and as individuals. All of the good bits that have happened are reasons to thank Heavenly Father... and all of the bits we're still working on are reasons to pray yet more! 

Together Forever : One Moment At A Time!