There is a mistake I have seen many single people making... but first let me tell you about this dinner I went to last night. I swear it's connected to the mistake.
A friend's church was having a dinner, and being a friend of this church member I was invited. I am not one to lightly pass up a free dinner at a church, as that is usually where the really good food is to be found. And I was expecting some really good food at this dinner because my friend had told me of a cake that one of the church ladies bakes, and he had reason to believe it would make an appearance last night.
You know what an italian creme cake is? Basically it's a really good cake, soaked down with sweetened cream, covered in cream cheese/nut/coconut icing. And it's usually three layers. Now imagine that in a chocolate version. That's the kind of cake my friend was telling me about, and I couldn't wait to try it.
Unfortunately it seems that lady wasn't feeling too well yesterday and she didn't even come to the dinner, much less make that cake. Man, I was upset! I'd been anticipating this cake for DAYS and it didn't show. I was so upset that I didn't eat much that night. There was a lot of good food there, I guess, but I was so hung up on that cake that I didn't get much on my plate. And what I got, I kind of just picked at. I kept watching the door, hoping that lady would show up with that cake in spite of the odds. I missed a great meal because I was too busy wishing for the cake I didn't have.
Sound silly? Yeah, it would be silly if it really happened. But that's the way I see it when people get so hung up on getting married that they miss their whole lives.
I see it a lot. In fact most of the single people I know (most = more than half,) talk a lot about trying to find a date, trying to hash things out with their date, trying to get themselves and their significant others straightened out so they can get married without divorcing the next day, trying to get over a break-up, trying to find a new date... and they let their WHOLE LIVES go by. They miss their lives because they spend all their energy trying to get that one thing they don't have that they think will make those lives complete.
To anybody who is single and unhappy because you are single, I say that life is a big long table full of great things to try. If you keep focusing on that one thing you think is missing, you are going to miss the whole meal - your whole life will go by before you know it, and you will have missed almost all of it.
Bon appetite!