Never Say Never Again
It is soon going to be my second wedding. As a teenager, I was positive I would never ever get married. It goes without saying, of course, that I thought I would never say “I do” twice in my life.
The fact is, I got married for the first time to the father of my two daughters and after a few years of getting to know each other in depth, we decided to split up. That was a hard time, but I will not beat around the bush, as the aim of this article, despite being linked to my first marriage, has nothing to do with that matter.
I was as sure at the age of 18 that I would never marry anyone, as I was after my divorce about never getting married again. However, he came to me like a hurricane, turning my whole world upside down. He moved to my home straight away, behaving as the father of my kids. As a consequence of this, we soon became parents of our little son. Because of his religious background, he felt the need to get married according to the laws of the Catholic Church which takes me right to the point of my article.
Last weekend, we had to attend an intensive course, which is compulsory for those intending to establish a Catholic family. Do not get me wrong, not only was I brought up in a nuns’ school, but I even had the vocation of becoming a nun myself when I was but 8, to my parents’ astonishment and concern. Nevertheless, their fears eased as soon as I discovered Philosophy, Kurt Cobain, Jethro Tull, and the like…
To make a long story short: I was shocked after that course. It made me remember feelings and thoughts that had been hidden and forgotten somewhere in my innermost self. A group of families opened themselves up to the 30 speechless couples who were sitting in front of them, listening in amazement.
It has taken me a while to take in the existence of a reality parallel to the one I live in. Our current lifestyle: work, kids, gym, extracurricular activities, festivities, hobbies, tight timetables. In short, our stressful lives do not let us notice that there are people with real problems and people devoting themselves to helping those ones out. They could not be doing it without the support of their prayers, their priests, their communities and their beliefs in God, in the Virgin Mary and in Jesus. This experience stirred me up inside. I need to be hands on. I cannot stay still any longer.
This is going to be my second marriage, but in many ways, it will be my first one.
Mar Leyva Alcaina
Escuela Oficial de Idiomas