I will ensure that our honeymoon lasts for a lifetime

Off we went to dreamland — they call it honeymoon. Never mind that it happens on earth.

It was time for me to reap where I had sown heavily. I could not wait one more minute.

A forty-minute flight to Mombasa, Kenya’s haven of merriment, seemed awfully long.

Spending quality time with my wife is all I thought about.

“Together forever!” she said, with her eyes firmly fixated on mine.

For a moment, we zoned off within imaginary confines.

With one palm on my neck, she leaned in, pulled me closer as we kissed our hearts out.

The emotion in her throat choked out words.

She cooed as I held her tightly.

At the five-star beach hotel, as expected, our bodies flamed with risqué romance.

Throughout the night, we quenched the thirst of intimacy that we had avoided for months on end in pursuit of purity.

Keeping off sex before the wedding night certainly paid off with zestful private moments.

The next morning, frolicking along the beach bare footed, holding hands and sandals — then she stopped, and looked at me in askance. “I never want this to end,” she said. “Not even when we are fighting, not even when we hit rock bottom.”

How I wanted to assure her but I could not.

Joy and I had dated for three years. The common denominator for us is our faith — which we were inclined to pursue in every sense.

Relationships, however, happen between human beings who fit within a spectrum of personalities. That comes with a lot of variation and difference in belief systems.

Friction is bound to be there.

And just like any other couple, we had our own fights.

We would argue and try to make the other person see “my perspective.”

There are moments we took time off the relationship to think deeper about our differences.

One time, sitting with a couple who had been married for 13 years, it dawned on us that difference is a constant in every relationship.

We were brought up by different parents, in different set-ups, with different friends, through different schools, around different families — why would we behave and react the same?

That said, however, there is goodness that belies the human condition.

Right and wrong, good and bad have empirical values that every spouse adheres to.

During honeymoon, the good shines above the bad. For me and my wife, we had just began learning the ropes. We savoured the beautiful moments under the tropical sun.

It got me thinking why everyone kept telling us “enjoy your honeymoon.”

Perhaps, like one married friend told us, once the honeymoon phase ends, husks fall off the eyes. You see your spouse for who they really are. What follows are incessant arguments in the house and frequent wars.

“You won’t stand the person you once loved,” she said. Is that what I really wanted?

I do not think so. For all I know, my marriage, in its entirety, ought to be “the honeymoon.”

That is what I was planning for all along.