We are celebrating 26 years of marriage this month.
I know you can probably believe it, since why would I make that up? The wrinkles don’t lie. Ha!
But I can hardly believe it because didn’t we just get married…a few years ago? Surely we’re not past the silver anniversary?
I crunched the math multiple times. I even did a little counting on my fingers, the serious mathematician that I am.
1999, 2000, 2001…
The one time my math isn’t wrong.
Now, don’t mistake my disbelief for a complaint – there are no complaints here. It’s more a reckoning of the direct correlation between the years we’ve been married and the pairs of reading glasses we now own.
Our middle-aged eyes may be throwing in the towel, but the deep sense of steadiness, contentedness, and purposeful devotion in our relationship has grown deeper. It’s something I wouldn’t or couldn’t have understood to be possible even five years ago.
It’s as if we’re hitting our stride now.
Or maybe our failing vision is a reminder that time passes on and to hold dear and keep choosing each other…even when it’s hard, especially when it’s hard because it’s the most worthwhile thing we’ve done.
The bond we have is precious having been forged through the minutaie and magnitude of our life experiences. While it has been resilient, we are learning to be better about protecting it with the care, grace, and tenderness it deserves.
There’s a song, “If We Were Vampires” by Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit with lyrics I think of surprisingly often.
“If we were vampires and death was a joke
We’d go out on the sidewalk and smoke
And laugh at all the lovers and their plans
I wouldn’t feel the need to hold your hand
Maybe time running out is a gift
I’ll work hard ’til the end of my shift
And give you every second I can find
And hope it isn’t me who’s left behind
It’s knowing that this can’t go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we’ll get forty years together
But one day I’ll be gone or one day you’ll be gone”
Let’s hope time doesn’t run out too soon. I’m greedy, so I’d like at least another 26 years. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
Handy Husband is already preparing for it. The other day on our lunch walk he asked me how much MORE I thought we’d need to walk each day when are retired.
Dear Reader, We currently walk 3.5 miles around six days per week, most of which is one big hill. I wasn’t sure why we’d need to increase our walking at all, but he seems to think this will be an important part of our retirement. Only time will tell. No one is retiring anytime soon.
One thing is for certain. There are still so many things want to experience together. If Handy Husband gets his way, we will experience a good chunk of those things on foot.
Here’s to health, happiness, and many more years together. I adore you, Handy Husband.
How do you celebrate anniversaries? Is it a big day for you or more low-key? It will be pretty low-key for us. Let me know how or if you celebrate. You can always comment on this blog post, email me here, or reach out via Instagram or Facebook.
P.S. This is a good time to remind you of a neat anniversary tradition. We reuse the same anniversary card year after year. It’s partly because we are cheap, but mainly because we can write each other a new message on the card each year. It’s becoming a little book with love notes to each other and I suspect we’ll be adding more pages to this card very soon. It’s very sweet to look back and see what we wrote to each other in past years.
Thank you for celebrating with us! If you’d like another blog post to read, I’ve got you covered.
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