not so bad as we'd feared

Early this morning Downwood and I headed into Mad-town to the church where we will be married in two months and two days. While the good monsignor did his best to convince us that the hoops the Catholic church requires us to jump through aren't so much "hoops" as "attempts to ensure that your marriage will last 5, 15, and 50 years".

So. Hoops.

Today was scheduled as a Marriage Preparation Retreat. Why we waited until football season to give up a Saturday for this, I don't know. There were two couples leading the thing and Father Ken providing church backup for them. Luckily for everyone involved, they supplied us with coffee. Yay, coffee!

It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. We never had to get up in front of the group and talk about...anything. We listened to the leader couples talk about challenges they've faced, then we wrote down our thoughts and feelings on the subject, exchanged papers with our betrothed, and then discussed it with only them. At the end of the day, there was a Q&A session, a review of the program, and we were ordered to write each other a love letter there on the spot.

It was much more rewarding than I'd expected. I was anticipating a day of discomfort, being preached at, being told how to Succeed At Marriage The Catholic Way, and not getting anything out of it. In reality, I think I came away from it with a more questions about me, the man I'm marrying, and the way we choose to live. I think that learning the answers to the questions may take quite a while, and that's more than okay by me.

And the love letter? Well, at least I wasn't the only one in the room sniffling and looking for the tissue box. Definitely something to treasure.