Sunday Inspiration: Anniversary
In honor of my anniversary today — and to anyone else with one in the month of January — I thought you might enjoy this poem my husband Michael sent me — and this is not our 50th anniversary! We’ll be a little farther south celebrating it this week. I’m going to hold him to the champagne!
The Longly-Weds Know by Leah Furnas
That it isn’t about the Golden Anniversary at all,
But about all the unremarkable years
that Hallmark doesn’t even make a card for.
It’s about the 2nd anniversary when they were surprised
to find they cared for each other more than last year
And the 4th when both kids had chickenpox
and she threw her shoe at him for no real reason
And the 6th when he accidentally got drunk on the way
home from work because being a husband and father
was so damn hard
It’s about the 11th and 12th and 13th years when
they discovered they could survive crisis
And the 22nd anniversary when they looked
at each other across the empty nest, and found it good.
It’s about the 37th year when she finally
decided she could never change him
And the 38th when he decided
a little change wasn’t that bad
It’s about the 46th anniversary when they both
bought cards, and forgot to give them to each other
But most of all it’s about the end of the 49th year
when they discovered you don’t have to be old
to have your 50th anniversary!!!!
Happy Anniversary Emilie and the poem is one of cleansing and validation of the work required in marriage. Not physically, but the labor of commitment.
This made me smile. We just celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in October 2014. It’s amazing thinking back over the years. We were 4 months when my husband went to Vietnam. It was like waiting to get married all over again. Then two years later we had a son and soon after a daughter, and we went through all the stages of your poem. Life is grand. 🙂
Aw. That’s so very sweet.
Marriage is a lot of work, isn’t it? But definitely worth the trouble when it’s a good one.