When They Ask For Advice

There's been a nasty virus going around here in the UK... and I got it!  Sorry, it's been a couple of weeks since I've felt well enough to do anything.  Here's a little post to finish up our Porto, Portugal, trip.

We spent an awesome weekend in Porto with friends where we went on a couple wine tours.  During the last one, we met a sweet, young, French couple.  Well, actually, she was from France, he was from the states, but they are living in Paris.  Wow...living in Paris!  They were about 25, had been married a year, and were celebrating her birthday that weekend.  In the course of talking to them, he asked us "old" married folk how we did it...how did we stay married so long.

You know, in a world of throw-away everything, I'm very proud that we've "made it" over 30 years together and I suppose we have a lot to offer a young couple looking to stay married forever.

We threw out a few ideas like...

          Be each other's best friend

          Never be willing to give up

          Forgive always

          Take time for yourself.

But I got to thinking about this conversation later and wondered if we could have said more.  I met John when I was 16...a long time ago!  We practically grew up together.  There were things we learned the hard way along the way.

          Make faith a priority

          Be honest...always

          Put each other first

          Compromise...there's always a solution if you take the time to pursue it

          Spend quality time together away from kids

          Never threaten the "D" word...divorce

          Be a team, work together

          Listen with your heart...what are they really saying underneath the anger and hurt

          Choose to LOVE even when you don't always LIKE them

Choose to love, it's a hard concept for some.  But it is possible and, I think, it's one of the most important aspects of marriage.  Marriage is not always a piece of cake with a cherry on top, sometimes it looks more like a squished donut!  Sometimes it's just really hard work.  It may start out all rosy, but life happens, feelings get hurt, we hurt them, they hurt us.  It's these moments, you must choose to love them.  Put it in God's hands, forgive, talk it through, and then put it behind you. 

Well, Porto turned out to be just beautiful our last two days.  Sunshine and a little surf to make the soul feel well!

          

Porto, Portugal

I'd been hoping for a sunny holiday and Porto did not disappoint.  We had mostly sun with one day of rain....ahhhh!  I can still feel the sun shining on my face.  We ventured to Portugal with some friends on a three night trip.  The first day we walked from Gaia to Porto across the bridge.  We walked about the city and visited an old bookstore where the library in Harry Potter was designed after.  Took some photos at the train station and some of us took a 240 step climb up a tower to get some awesome city views.  Day two was our Douro Valley wine tour.  We did some wine tasting and got to see where they grow the grapes for Port wine.  Just beautiful countryside, however, rugged terrain as the grape vines grow in shale.  They have cold, cold winters and very hot summers in this region.  The tour included a river cruise and a Portuguese lunch family style, as well as two winery tours.

For more amazing photos of Porto, please visit  http://aimeecunninghamphotography.zenfolio.com/porto.

Looking out over Gaia toward Porto from our flat.  Gaia is where the port cellars are located which is mostly what you see below, the roofs of the cellars.

Looking across the River Douro at Porto.

Train station well known for it's tile art.

Douro Valley tour

The start of our river tour.

Two story bridge, metro and walking across the top and auto and walking across the bottom.

240 steps up this tower! 

 

To get these views!!

Inside of the church at the bottom of the tower.