Today is our twenty-fifth anniversary.
In an ordinary year we probably would have had a party sometime this weekend to celebrate, invited friends and family, made an event of it.
This is not an ordinary year, though, and for that reason the day will pass quietly. Maybe we’ll have that party sometime down the line when it’s not a life-threatening thing to get together with people anymore. We do believe in moveable feasts, after all. A celebration is always welcome. Kim has a trip planned that we may yet get to take, depending on how things go, or we may move it to a later time and celebrate then.
But in a way the idea of staying home and just hanging out is sort of appropriate.
So much of a relationship is just doing the ordinary things together, year in and year out. I knew very early on after we started dating that I was going to ask Kim to marry me – it was a profoundly ordinary moment on a spring evening in Wisconsin, but something in that moment told me that I could spend a lifetime accumulating moments like that and so far I have.
We underestimate the ordinary.
It has been a quarter century of moments both ordinary and extraordinary. We traveled. We finished degrees and found new jobs. We bought a house. We raised a family. We found new friends and lost old ones. There have been cats.
All of those moments, and every day more of them. Meals. Tasks. Hanging out. Ordinary moments made extraordinary simply by sharing them with someone you love.
Here’s to another twenty-five years of moments, ordinary and otherwise.
In an ordinary year we probably would have had a party sometime this weekend to celebrate, invited friends and family, made an event of it.
This is not an ordinary year, though, and for that reason the day will pass quietly. Maybe we’ll have that party sometime down the line when it’s not a life-threatening thing to get together with people anymore. We do believe in moveable feasts, after all. A celebration is always welcome. Kim has a trip planned that we may yet get to take, depending on how things go, or we may move it to a later time and celebrate then.
But in a way the idea of staying home and just hanging out is sort of appropriate.
So much of a relationship is just doing the ordinary things together, year in and year out. I knew very early on after we started dating that I was going to ask Kim to marry me – it was a profoundly ordinary moment on a spring evening in Wisconsin, but something in that moment told me that I could spend a lifetime accumulating moments like that and so far I have.
We underestimate the ordinary.
It has been a quarter century of moments both ordinary and extraordinary. We traveled. We finished degrees and found new jobs. We bought a house. We raised a family. We found new friends and lost old ones. There have been cats.
All of those moments, and every day more of them. Meals. Tasks. Hanging out. Ordinary moments made extraordinary simply by sharing them with someone you love.
Here’s to another twenty-five years of moments, ordinary and otherwise.
Congratulations! As I get older, I find the ordinary quite enough. Not that I don't like surprises, spontaneity, and new experiences but the hecticness and responsibilities can also take a toll. The comfort of the ordinary, shared with loved ones, is very welcome. Wishing you the best of the ordinary and the extraordinary in the next 25 years!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations David! Got any advice for a semi-newlywed?
ReplyDelete-Cari
@Walleye - thanks! The comfort of the ordinary, shared with loved ones, is one of the best things we can have in this world, I think. I'm looking forward to the next 25!
ReplyDelete@Cari - try to remember that these are the Good Old Days you'll look back on, and enjoy them accordingly. Other than that, not much really. You'll find your own way. :) Thanks!
We underestimate the ordinary.
ReplyDeleteI would add "the power of" in the middle of that sentence, and define the 'We' in the collective, or, perhaps, substitute the noun 'Humans' for the noun 'We' (e.g.:Humans underestimate the power of the ordinary).
Sue and I wish you & Kim all the best, even if it comes a couple of days later than we would've hoped.
And don't limit it to the next 25 ... make it 67!
Lucy
We'll start with 25 and work up from there! 67 here we come!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Never a bad time for good wishes. :)