The title of this blog “Shelter the Heart,” is taken from one of my favorite poems, House of Stone by Carmen Bugan, a poem that a long-time friend read at my wedding.
In the village where I was born, we wish A house of stone to shelter the heart of a marriage So here too, I wish you Obstinate, strong love, unyielding and unending. May you be in reach of each other when all seems lost, May your tears and your smiles happen always face to face. When you imagine that you have shared everything May you know that you still have the rest of your lives To do it all again and again. But now listen to the hurry of bells and Look how the petals of roses about the vineyard Bring you words of husband and wife: First words in your house of stone.
In the poem, a “house of stone” seems to be an intangible thing, the building of strength and care in a partnership named aloud. My husband and I have had ample chance to build or own house of stone to shelter the heart of our marriage. In our first two years of marriage I experienced a life-threatening and debilitating car accident, I left my job, we moved across country, my husband experienced a painful and permanent injury, and I moved back to live with my parents and resumed working while he deployed to Afghanistan for seven months.
It was not easy, but we came through it with one hell of a house of stone. Now, CT (nickname for mah husband) has exited the military and is working in the civilian sector, and we were able to buy our first home. We are currently waiting for the military to get around to shipping our furniture (at our cost – did you know that they only pay for active duty or retirement moves? Once you choose to leave you’re either stuck at your last PCS location or pay our of pocket to move), moving out of my parents house (Yasssss!) and engaging in many, many home improvement projects.
I hope you’ll join us through these blog posts as I share our improvements to our new house of brick and mortar as well as the every day challenges that help build our house of stone.
Shelter the Heart 