Decide To Be Married Day Interview Of Barbara

From Barbara,

I was interviewed today by a new York journalist. Here is the interview with the poem Decide to be Married.

Barbara Muller says:

June 27, 2012 at 7:21 pm

Hello Dear Denise,

I loved my interview with you today about Decide to Be Married Day, 

Celebrating our 15 th wedding anniversary. My late husband Dr. Robert Muller ( http://www.robertmuller.org ) and I were married in 1997 on June 27th and this is the 10th Anniversary for Chases Annual Events. I am phoned every June 27th to talk about this major decision. 

I have been interviewed on our porch in Costa Rica, on a train to New York and on the radio more times than you would believe and the question always asked is ..how did you know it was time to be married? 

I knew it was because I was more of myself when I was with dear Robert, we were friends first, we both had the same values and I would enhance his work for Peace and he, my work for a better world. We saw all was possible for our combined families and the future as a couple would be interesting and precious and it was. 

Thank you for asking.. Barbara.

--

Jun 27, 2012

 

I read that today is Decide to be Married Day, inspired by Barbara Gaughen-Muller's poem.

Intrigued, I called Mrs. Muller to find out more. Turns out today is the tenth annual 'Decide to be Married Day' a date accepted by Chase's Calendar of Events as an official occasion.

Mrs. Muller and her late husband Robert Muller are life-long advocates for world peace. They met in Santa Barbara in 1994, when she was 53, and he was twenty years older than she. Mrs. Muller was the director of a retreat center where Mr. Muller was attending a program. They dated for three years, until one day, a Sunday in 1997, her mother said to her,'Aren't you going to get married?' 

So the couple talked it over, and Mrs. Muller said, 'If we're supposed to get married, everything will come together and it will happen this Friday.'

And it did. Less than one week later, on June 27, 1997, Barbara and Robert were married on the grass near the Hudson River in Manhattan, by the mayor of Dobbs Ferry. Both had been married previously, and their six children and nine grandchildren attended. Her granddaughters were initially perplexed by her black wedding dress, but Mrs. Muller explained to them that there hadn't been time to get another one, and this was the black knit gown she'd gotten engaged in.

The day before her wedding, Mrs. Muller wrote the poem, 'Decide to Be Married' She was determined to live a happy life, and that she did. Mr. Muller, who served as Assistant-Secretary General of the United Nations, passed away in September 2010. He was also the author of several books and poems.

Mrs. Muller remains extremely active in her quest for world peace, and has continued the work that she and her husband started at www.goodmorningworld.com

She believes that a healthy marriage is a wonderful thing, and left us with these question if you can answer yes to all of them, you've met your spouse, she said.

1. Are you more who you are when you're with that person?
2. Are you happier when you're with that person?
3. Are you happy when you're not with that person?
4. Are you able to be more who you are, even when you're together in a large group?
5. Do you feel that this is a part of your destiny?
6. Do you feel that you bring as much to this relationship as the other person does?
7. Do you feel that you are a whole person on your own?

And now, the poem!

Decide to be Married

Decide to be married
To become one heart, one body,

one mind and one soul

To share your joy
To live life as an art
And to make every moment precious
Whether together or apart

Remember as a couple
You are now more than one
To create harmony and perfect love

that will last through eternity
even after this life is done

Remember also there is a power
In this union of two

to protect this planet

And humanity too
As a couple you can do it

It's in the deciding
To be united in love
To express your joyful oneness
To every person you meet, and
In every action you take
And together a perfect marriage you'll make