Tomorrow my husband and I will be married for 15 years. I can't even begin to describe the twists and turns our life has taken in those years. But through all the various settings our life has taken place in, we have had this center, this unmoving place of safety and trust. It is only in recent years as we have seen marriages crumble around us that we have truly appreciated the holy gift that this relationship is.
We took a trip a few weeks ago to celebrate our anniversary and it is good we did as tomorrow will be spent in the hospital with our son getting treatment for another infection. Not the most romantic place for an anniversary, but not totally inappropriate. For our marriage is not just a gift of security and steadfast love for the two of us, but also for those around us touched by our lives and our relationship.
But in the craziness of family life, the monotony of housework, the stress of work- we can take a moment, breathe deep and look at each other in wonder of the gift we have been given. The gift of this marriage.
Sometimes, hidden from me in daily custom and in ritual
I live by you unaware, as if by the beating of my heart.
Suddenly you flare again in my sight
A wild rose at the edge of the thicket where yesterday there was only
shade
And I am blessed and choose again,
That which I chose before.
-Wendell Berry, The Wild Rose
