BEFORE / AFTER

When we first arrived on Okinawa I was searching for another love in my life. And then, there he was! He was dirty, dented, rusted, and torn. When our eyes first met, there were no fireworks, no heart palpitations, and no burning desire to spend the rest of our lives together.

When my husband said we?ll take it, I walked away shaking my head and said, ?I don?t want to know anything!?

?Only the best for my precious? was his reply.

Don?t laugh. Would you have purchased this car without even starting it? "Just LOOK!!"

Then, Tom said those famous last words to me ?Trust me.?

Sigh??. So I did. After all, ?Only the best for his precious? as he always says.

A few days later we visited this so called new love of my life. The mechanics were having a bit of difficulty because the tire bolts were so badly rusted they had to pry them off. Once again, I just shook my head and put all those nasty thoughts out of my mind. What this new dude of mine desperately needed was a complete makeover!

Oh I forgot to mention, the Japanese mechanics didn?t speak English! It was a major communication gap but I said nothing; just smiled and kept giving them the old thumbs up.

Two weeks later they stripped my man naked. UGH! What a sight, he looked even worse. At this point, I had a choice to make. Either learn to love him or be miserable for the remainder of our tour. Love won because as they say, ?Beauty is only skin deep. It?s what's on the inside that really matters.?

?Oh, goodness. Did you take a look at the inside???????????????

I had to stay focused, be positive and search for some very deep inner beauty here. The decision was made to start speaking very highly about him, in hopes it would help. And I did exactly that. I displayed his pictures all over my desk, on my computer and sent picture files of him to all my friends. Anyone who came into my office, I spoke about my new love and showed them how handsome he was. Everyone laughed and thought I totally lost it. I just ignored their laughter and defended my new love. He was my man!
For better and in this case, for WORSE.