Relationships & Maturity

I got married when I was twenty four years old. Ideally in my opinion one should be head over heals in love to even consider marriage, but that was not my mindset at the time. having just lost my mother & being left with my older brother as my one & only living relative I was thinking of security, stability & building a family of my own. So I should have known right then that this was not to be forever. Two years later I decided to call it quits. Nothing dramatic took place, no affairs, no lies, no power struggle. I just finally excepted that I wasn't right for him & he definitely was not the one for me. But even though in my heart I knew we needed to part ways, the love was still there. I completely understand why divorce is one of the hardest things to go thru in life. He still loved me too & we actually helped each other thru it. We went to church together, we prayed together, we held each other when the other needed to be comforted. To this day, almost five years after our divorce we still love one another. Which is something our friends & even family have had trouble understanding. They ask us if we still love one another why don't you get back together? I try to explain that its not that type of love. My Ex-Hubby was just here visiting me before the holidays & we had a great time. We laugh, hold hands, crack jokes, just enjoy one another. Some of the same things that brought us together in the first place. There are times we have been out together & complete strangers would actually come up to us & say " You two look like such a happy couple." And we respond with "Thank you, but we've been divorced for years". You should see the shock & dismay on their faces lol. I am very proud of the both of us for being strong enough to realize we weren't right for one another. Smart enough to recognize that our love for one another could evolve, it didn't have to be defined by societies standards or expectations. And we are mature enough to be there for each other in our times of need, but at the same time give each other enough space to seek out our own happiness. We talk to each other every single day, usually multiple times. He has been in a committed relationship with someone for over three years now. I have been in multiple relationships lol. But now we are a family, I love him more than words can say & I know he feels the same. I wouldn't want to imagine my world without him. I understand that all relationships cant end this way. I understand that sometimes there is too much hurt to forgive or too much pain to over come, but divorce does not have to equal hate. It does not have to mean the end of love, it can mean the beginning of a different love : )