Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

One of my best friends sent this to me…

When I initially read it, my eyes welled up with tears. It was spot on with how I felt about my long distance relationship with my husband. To the average person, I am probably insane. I married my husband without ever actually living in close proximity to him. The closest that I was to him was 5.5 driving hours. Now, he’s about a 15 hour plane ride away. We would spend a lot of time together at once though, lots (I mean, lots) of weekends to weeks at a time when he had leave. Every moment I spent with him was precious and it certainly added up to build a solid relationship. I long for him when we are away and I am wholeheartedly in our marriage 150%. If I didn’t feel confident in us, I wouldn’t have made the decision to commit myself.

Then, I got curious to where that quote is from. Is it a part of a book? Did a famous person say it? I googled the first line and found this story on Oprah.com. The quote seems to just be an excerpt on an article about long distance relationships. Following the quote that my friend pass along to me, the article read: “Yes, the long-distance relationship may be doomed. You can't go on that way forever. But as long as you do, you'll embody the twin virtues of independence and imagination. As you fall asleep alone, you'll conjure the scent of your lover's neck, the timbre of a voice over fiber optics, the ecstasy of seeing his face at the front door, which, thanks to him, is your favorite place in the whole house.”

Well, it’s certainly right. I won't be able to live this way forever.  As soon as my soldier gets back from overseas, we have plans to be together in a permanent home. Right now, we don’t know where that would be, but it’s in the works! In the meantime, I’ll continue to long for him and cherish all the chances I get to spend with him in person (which won’t be a lot of times in this year!).

Have you and your soldier ever endured long distance?