20190109.0430

Today marks nine years that I have been married to my remarkably wonderful wife. The day we got married was a cold, blustery Saturday in the Texas Hill Country, and she and I were both down from The City for the event. (We'd have to be, of course.) Many from our families and circles of friends gathered with us, helping us to begin our married lives together in joy and surrounded by love. Vows exchanged in Old English (her idea, but one I endorsed), a live band playing standards (courtesy of a now deceased great uncle), much food and drink (more than there were people present to eat it, in the event), resplendent cakes, and no few other things stand out in my mind from that day--but none equal the joy of seeing my fiancée arrive and cease to be my fiancée, becoming my wife.
Cliché as it is, the wedding day, of which this is the anniversary (I didn't forget, clearly, and Happy Anniversary, Honey!), is one of the best days of my life--the second-best, to date. (I think myself justified in noting that the birth of Ms. 8 supers it.) Some commented that it made little difference; my wife and I were already living together, and had been for a while, before we got married, and our apartment in The City had but the one bedroom. But I, at least, perceive a difference, though I cannot articulate it. Indeed, I cannot remember what life was like before it anymore; I remember events, to be sure, but I seem to me to have always been married. That is, I don't have the feeling of not being married--and happily, I might add--in mind or heart anymore. And that's probably for the best, all told.
I've made the note about our anniversary repeatedly before (here, here, here, here, and here), although not as often as should be the case in this webspace. Nor have I always given the event the note it seems to me to be due. But I am trying to improve, and not only in the writing with which I mark the event for the public. I know I am not always the best husband I can be; I am not always as supportive of my wife as she deserves, and I am certainly not as willing to go along with her ideas about fun and things to do as she would prefer, curmudgeon that I am. I know, too, that she deserves more and better from me, and so I try to provide it. If there is anything like a resolution for the year that still is new, it is that I am trying to be a better husband in such ways. My wife deserves it for herself; our daughter deserves to have a home full of love that does not hide itself or have to force its way out from under a thick layer of...whatever it is I seem to be coated with.

So, again, Happy Anniversary!

May we have many more!