Up until this point, I have somehow managed to avoid referencing a country song in any of my articles, which is surprising considering I’ve been a die-hard fan since I was two.
But alas, the time has come.
You can thank (or blame) Thomas Rhett for this, but his new song “Die A Happy Man” is just a little too much for my vulnerable little heart right now. I won’t sing every single word to you, but in the chorus of the song he talks about being content with just being in the presence of his wife without needing a big adventurous life to be happy. Up until a couple months ago, I would have been like “duh, Thomas! Of course a simple life is where it’s at!” and moved on with my life.
But then my husband applied for this job with the military, a job that would potentially change our lives in a very dramatic way. We set ourselves up to have someone else tell us where we were going to live and how long we were going to live there, which is a scary thing for a couple of small town Nebraska kids. Part of the 9 month application process was to list our top five locations for being stationed in the US and overseas. We spent countless hours praying, Googling, and Pinteresting (me, not Taylor) about life in every city with an Air Force base, trying to decide if it was somewhere we would potentially want to go. Not long into the process our Googling turned into hoping and wishing and dreaming that this was in fact what was in store for us. We fell in love with the idea of going on an adventure, and what that would mean for the two of us and our someday family (oh, and our cats).
And then we got a big fat NO from the Air Force, and all of that dreaming came to an abrupt hault. We didn’t find ourselves bitter, it was a total long shot after all. But in crept this subtle fear that maybe we’re being called to just stay in Nebraska. That this is all that’s in store for us. Which is in no way a bad thing, but when you’ve been bitten by the adventure bug, it definitely feels like a set back. Would we be happy if our world was only as big as small town Nebraska? Would we feel fulfilled with life without ever needing a passport?
And then the clouds broke, and I heard a big fat YES. Of course we will be happy. And of course we will be fulfilled. Yeah, it would probably be really cool to live in Germany for a while, but we don’t need to be concerned about where we are as much as who we’re with. And if I live my whole life without ever needing a passport, or even never leaving the state of Nebraska, as long as I’ve spent my time with my husband by my side loving him the best I can, well then baby, I could die a happy woman.