21st Anniversary

Originally posted on Thursday, May 8, 2008

Today is our Wedding Anniversary. I had a dozen red roses waiting for her on the kitchen table with a card. I can't remember word for word, but the card came with a very lovely inscription about having a history together, through thick and thin and wanting to be in love forever. It made me cry when I read it in the store (I seem to cry a lot these days, and I must admit, it feels good to express emotion that way after so many years of keeping it all inside).

Two days ago, I was thinking about our upcoming anniversary and a very old song came on the radio while I was driving. It was Gladys Knight singing "You're the Best Thing (that ever happened to me)" and again, I cried as I listened to the words.


This is a song I remember hearing as a young teen. I especially remember them playing it at the skating rink whenever the lights went low for a couples skate. I used to go skating every Wednesday and Friday. Ironically, years later after comparing notes, it seems that she was there at the same skating rink all those years ago. I wonder if we ever skated together? Probably not, I was usually too shy, I always waited to be asked, which didn't happen very often. Funny how a song like that can hold such memories, and then years later the words seem to come into focus and mean so much more. Back then, I thought there were people who were "the best thing" but now after all these years, I really do have someone who is the best thing that ever happened to me. Someone who has shared my ups & downs. Someone who has eased my pain and brought me glory. And when times were hard, always somehow I made through, because for each moment spent hurting, there was a moment spent just loving her.

So, as corny as it was (I'm such a geek) , I wrote the words of the song on the inside of the card. I wish now that I had written something more like the paragraph above. Regardless, she seemed to like it and she loved the roses. She's off to work now and I have the day off. It's raining outside. Next to my laptop, I found a card from her and a beautiful silver butterfly ring. She knows that I like butterflies, as a lot of us do because of the whole metaphor of transformation. It's beautiful and it has a purple gemstone in it. Purple has always been one of my favorite colors. The card has a lovely verse on the cover:

LOVE
bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.

LOVE
never ends.

1 CORINTHIANS 13:7-8

Inside she wrote a personal note remembering our second date and how we both knew that we had something so very special. Again.... I cry, the future seems so bitter sweet.