This weekend I had the privilege of attending a beautiful wedding of a very dear friend whom I shared a house with when we both lived in Cyprus.

The wedding was a wonderful testimony of two people celebrating their love for each other. It was a very special day. So what made it so special? It was the Bride and Bridegroom’s first wedding both aged 58 and 65 respectively. It hadn’t been a whirlwind romance as they have in fact been together for almost 20 years.   They weren’t marrying due to peer or parental pressure. They were getting married because they wanted to and as confirmation of their love for each other. In the UK, the traditional reason to get married is LOVE.

According to national statistics we are leaving it much later to “tie the knot” with the average age for women being 27 and 29 for men.   Although being 58 & 65 years for a first marriage is still much later than the national average.

So why marry later?

The reasons for people getting married in their later years obviously differ to those who marry much younger, the main one is there isn’t a driving force to have children. However, I believe the same hopes and joys exist whatever age one gets married.

Careers have been established, financial security has been achieved and generally people are satisfied and comfortable with their lives and comfortable in their own skin. As we grow older, we know who we are. We are also more tolerant, a very important factor for a successful marriage.

Hopefully when we marry late we’ve had the opportunity to learn from failed relationships or previous marriages.

There are also health benefits and statistics report that married people live longer than their divorced counter-parts. I also believe the vows “in sickness and in health and until death do us part” are more meaningful and heartfelt.

We are also living longer and expect more from life, especially during our retirement and what better way to spend it than with your soul mate. The happiest couples are friends who share lives and have and share common interests.

So if you are single and dream of your wedding day, remember, it’s never too late, whatever your age. Or maybe like me, you are currently happily single but remember whether you are male or female that wedding day maybe closer than you think.

Some celebrities who have also chosen to marry later in life:-

– George Clooney 53 / Amal Alamuddin –a date set for September.

– Harrison Ford was 61 when he married Calista Flockhart.

– Paul McCartney was 68 when he married Nancy Shevell.

– Robert Redford was 72 when he wed Sibylle Szaggars.

Love life, be happy, love will find you.

Smile and the Whole World Smiles with You

I’ve been carrying out a secret experiment lately. I wanted to see what would happen if I smiled more and whether the world really did “smile with you”.

When we smile our face lights up, we can literally light up a room with just a smile. Some people are lucky and have naturally smiley faces – two of my very close friends do and they are very popular. I unfortunately, am not one of those people and can look stern if I am not smiling.   So for the last year in my happiness mission I started to smile more.   The results have been amazing.

I became aware of all the muscles and tension held in my face when I attended yoga classes and at the end of the class through the relaxation part/cool down we would lie down with the intention of relaxing every muscle and fibre in our body. If you haven’t tried yoga or relaxation classes before try this simple exercise. When you next get the opportunity, lie completely flat and still, starting with your face, relax all your facial muscles, your lips, mouth, jaw, eyes, eyebrows, instantly you will feel lighter. If you have time, do this for all the muscles in your body right from your head down to your toes, relaxing each and every muscle you become aware of. You will be surprised at how much tension this releases and how much lighter and relaxed you become. This exercise also works really well if you have difficulty sleeping.

Smiling releases endorphins and it is very difficult to stay angry or worried if you smile. Try it next time you are not feeling at your best, choose to smile and see how your emotion changes.

Whenever I see a baby in the supermarket and it smiles I can’t help but smile back and usually if I take a look around I notice that other people nearby are also smiling. The smile is infectious.

So back to my experiment, I started to smile more during my daily commute to work. When my train arrives in London I walk across London Bridge, to the left I can see St Paul’s and to my right Tower Bridge. I smile to myself as I realise how lucky I am to enjoy this wonderful view every morning. I have also made a “happy playlist” on my i-pod which never fails to make me smile.   As a result, I have noticed that more people seem to be smiling at me. I have even struck up new friendships on my daily commute. We all helped each other out during the winter, when the line on our commute suffered landslides. We took it in turns to drive to an alternative station. We also text each other when trains have been cancelled, we share information and recommendations for best physiotherapists, decorators in the area.  The results have been amazing and all this from smiling more?

I wonder what would happen if each one of us were to smile a little bit more and that smile were to reverberate to say another 5 people, they in turn do the same – just imagine the possibilities.   Everywhere might become a happier place.

Try it, next time you are travelling to work, standing in a queue or paying for something.

I would love to hear your thoughts on smiling and what happens when you smile at someone you don’t know, or even someone you do know. Let’s try and raise the happiness stakes. Remember smiling is infectious.

Below are some quotes, the last one is my favourite:-

“Keep smiling, because life’s a beautiful thing and there’s so much to smile about”  – Marilyn Monroe

“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight” – Phyllis Diller

“I have many problems in my life but my lips don’t know that – they always smile” – Charlie Chaplin

“A smile is the prettiest thing that you can wear” – author unknown

Frank Sinatra – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7xUXRlRSyc

Wishing all my lovely readers a happy and smiley week.

TraceyMarie

Congratulations to Germany who won the World Cup Final last night after a 24 year wait since their last win. The competition had me thinking how the world comes together for this four yearly competition. It unites people, countries, men and women and even if, like me, you don’t have any interest in football, you would have been hard pressed to completely ignore it. In fact I thoroughly enjoyed watching the game last night.

With Germany being one of the finalists of the World Cup, I recalled a recent riding trip I made to Iceland. My travelling companions were two German couples, a single German lady, a Swiss mother and daughter, two single American women and myself.

For two nights we stayed in a mountain cabin, up in the Highlands of Iceland with not much connection to the outside world. Each night at the mountain cabin, our guide Helga, who is also an opera singer, produced a songbook that had a variety of songs from various places around the world, including Iceland, the UK and Germany. She was determined to teach us an Icelandic riding song called “Ridum Ridum”. We sang the first verse in Icelandic, the second in German and the third in English.

Singing the songs together united us all and caused much laughter. Initially we were shy about singing but soon all our inhibitions were lost.   Songs in the songbook included, “Oh Suzanna”, “He’s got the whole world in his Hands”, “Oh Bla Di Oh Bla Da” and many more. An eclectic mix, carefully compiled, knowing that there would surely be a song for everyone and each nation.

One of the German ladies, Birgit, requested that we sing “Lili Marlene”. When we had finished singing the song, Birgit said that her father had sang that song to her as a child. He told her that during the World War it was played every night and all sides of the war would stop fighting to sing the song. Birgit told us that if her father was now looking down it would make him very happy to know that all nations who had been fighting in the war were now sitting around a table, united, happy with each other and singing a song that they had sang during a time of war and turmoil. The atmosphere in our little mountain cabin that night was charged with pure unity and happiness. It was a very special and magic evening.

I for one feel truly grateful to all those who fought in the war and made this possible. I am sure they would be very proud because now we are at peace, able to travel freely and make wonderful new friends.

Wishing everyone a very happy week full of love and happiness.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3561946/The-story-behind-the-song-Lili-Marlene.html