A Life-Altering Event

They are young, much in love, and now newly wed.
Life together is sweet, so wonderfully carefree.
Activities aren’t planned but spontaneous instead.
They have no idea that soon all this will cease to be.

A life-altering event already is headed their way.
It could have been prevented, been protected against,
but they were careless just once on one particular day.
Today it is confirmed; expect it seven months hence.

Their lives will never be the same but changed forevermore.
No more will they be free to come and go as they please.
They will leave their comfort zone, a new world to explore.
Their lives of self-absorption fell victim to the birds and bees.

At first they are unprepared for the commitment required,
but slowly their dread is replaced by the feeling that maybe
this is a blessing after all. Their love has grown, inspired
by their first anniversary being celebrated by the birth of a baby.

A baby…a child…a lifetime responsibility and commitment…
years of undying love and sacrifice in its behalf it shall demand…
fully capable of being the agent to strengthen, or to fragment,
the couple’s marriage. Unplanned, the test of their love just began.


Harry Edward Gilleland      11.23.04